LeafGreen Nuzlocke
by Danny199
Summary: I wanted to make a comic about my recent LeafGreen Nuzlocke, but I decided writing it would be way nicer, since I'm better at it. Follow Lucas, a 18 year old inhabitant of Pallet Town, who will go on a journey, even though he doesn't even want to in the beginning.
1. Chapter 1

I woke up as the first sunshine worked their way through my window. My name is Lucas, and I am 18 years old, a few months already to be exact. I live in Pallet Town, that is a small town in the Kanto region. Many people leave for a Pokémon Journey, so does my cousin and best friend Gary, but I don't. I am sick of all the trainers, killing their Pokémon like it is no big deal. Adding that most Pokémon are aggressive, deathly killing machines, I don't even want to think about it.

Nevertheless, Professor Oak has asked me to come to his lab, why, I don't know, but I can't keep the old man waiting.

 **This is:**

 **Lucas's LeafGreen Nuzlocke Challenge.**

By Danny 199

"Ah, good you could come." Professor Samuel Oak said, as I walked into his house. It wasn't hard to find, since Pallet Town only has like four houses and one Pokémon Research Lab, Oak's House. One of the houses is from me, one of my cousin Gary. And three of them are from trainers, one of them is named Carl, another of my friends. The last one never left the house, and just left on a journey. Speaking of a journey, Carl said goodbye lately as well, he left with his Bulbasaur Ricky on a journey. I wanted to stop him, but his decision was solid.

"Hi Lucas, good you could come." Oak is quite an old man already, my guess is around 60, but still working on Pokémon research every single day.

"What can I do for you?" I asked, not knowing what would happen.

"I need a favor of you and Gary." Maybe I forgot to mention something, Oak is the grandpa of Gary, but not directly my grandpa. He is the father of my father, who left me and my mom alone. That's why Gary is named Gary Oak, but I am Lucas Duncan, after my mother's name.

Gary walked in, happy to see me, and he gave me a pat. "So, good ol'Lucas is finally going on a journey." He said, and only then I saw the two Pokéballs, lying there.

Without a word, I wanted to turn around and walk away. The entire town knew I wouldn't go on a journey, and they all know why.

"Lucas…" "Why? I don't want to go on a journey, why isn't it clear to you. I don't want to leave my mom, I don't want to leave Pallet. I don't want to be like my dad."

That was it. The last reason I didn't wanted to leave on a Pokémon Journey. My dad did, when I was 4 years old, he left us and never returned. We didn't even heard something of him. He had disappeared. I don't want to do the same thing.

"Lucas, it is important." "I am not going." I wanted to walk away, but when I turned around, I saw my mom, standing in the doorway.

"Lucas, there is something you need to hear from Samuel." She said, and I instantly knew it was important, my mom never talks on this tone, the last time was when my dad left us.

"Lucas, Gary. There is something you need to know." Oak said. "The Pokémon World hasn't always been this rough, when I grew up, it was a fine place to live. Of course, it was dangerous, going on a journey, cause Pokémon where dangerous. But it was a good live. Then, Lance came in, he became champion, and things changed. The world became terrible, Pokémon didn't faint anymore, they died. Really died."

"But grandpa, how did they ever manage to make all Pokémon die instead of fainting?" Gary asked. "I don't know, that's why I need you two, to go and find Lance, but you can't go like this. You need to do it the gym way, defeat 8 gyms, and then you are allowed to get Lance." Oak said. I wanted to shook my head.

"Lucas, maybe, you can find your dad." My mom said, trying to reach me. I was shocked. A part of me wanted to find my dad, the other one wanted to never see him again. I was in dubio.

"Also, the thing Lance used to make all Pokémon killable, also made them the killing machines. Cause when they can die, they need to protect themselves from having that happen." Oak answered the question I had in my head.

"We will go, right Lucas?" "Gary, you have been my friend since I don't know when. So I want to ask you, why do you go? You have everything here. Why would you put that all at stake?" Gary looked at me. "I want to go on a journey, to follow in my grandpa's steps." He answered me correctly, although to be completely honest, I already knew.

"Come on Lucas, you and me, and invincible team." Gary said. "Okay than, I will, but only to stop Lance, not to find my dad." I said, looking at my mom, who nodded. She knew I wouldn't go looking for my dad, and she was in peace with it.

"If you two will follow me." Oak said, guiding us towards the table with two Pokémon on them.

"One of them is for you, Gary, the other one for Lucas." "Go on Lucas, you can go first." Gary smiled. I nodded and walked forward.

I saw one Pokéball had a flame on it, the other one a drop of water. Charmander and Squirtle.

I couldn't decide, but I knew water would put out fire, and I wanted to give Gary the advantage.

"I'll take Charmander." I let out the lizard Pokémon, and it smiled happy to me. You don't know what you are going to witness little buddy. I almost felt sorry to take it with me.

"Does it have a name?" I asked.

"I have, it is Niall." The Charmander said. I was confused, a Pokémon could talk.

The others didn't' to have a problem with the talking Charmander, so I decided to ask. "Did you all hear it speak?" The others nodded, no big deal.

"Since when do Pokémon speak?" Was my following question. "They have always done, but only against their trainers, and the people that are lucky to be around that trainer at the time." That's why I had never heard one speaking, it only speaks to its trainer.

I squatted down. "So you are Niall?" "Yeah, that would be me." "And, you must a boy, hearing your voice." "That is true as well." Niall laughed.

"Then I will go with Squirtle." Squirtle came out of its Pokéball, and started to talk with Gary. It seemed to be named Blast, funny name, figuring his (It is a male) would be a _Blast_ oise.

"Lucas, how about a battle?" Gary asked. I nodded, that could be fun. "But not till death, okay?" Gary grinned. "Of course not."

"Charmander, I mean, Niall, go with Scratch." "Blast, counter it with Tackle." The match went on with only these two attacks, you wouldn't want to watch it.

"Niall, one more Scratch." It was enough, Squirtle fell down, and I commanded Niall to stop.

"Congrats, it seems you really are strong." Gary said. "Thanks, you are to." I said.

"Well, that would be it. I'll see you around Lucas, and if you don't go washing yourself, I can smell you coming." We all laughed, it was a joke from when I was little, and I always became so dirty, that my mom always said it.

Gary gave his grandpa a hand, and laid his hand on my shoulder. "Good luck." I looked in his eyes. "You to."

"Bye miss Duncan, Smell ya later." Another reference to our youth. That time looked so far away, crazy how things go.

"I should be on my way as well." I gave Oak a hand, and walked towards my mom.

"Will you be careful?" She asked. "Of course I will, don't worry." I kissed her goodbye, and then walked off, Niall next to me. Off to adventure, to stop Lance.

 **End of Part 1**

 **So, let me know what you think** **this. It won't replace Danny's Journey, I have almost finished chapter 12 for tomorrow. This is based on my actual LeafGreen nuzlocke, from a few months ago, I didn't really knew what to do with it, since I wanted to make a comic, but I can't draw. Then I realize I really like writing, so I decided to write it down. This will just be random uploads, and won't (hopefully) affect Danny's Journey. I see you guys tomorrow with another Danny's Journey chapter.**


	2. The Rules

**The Rules**

If a Pokémon faints, it is considered dead, and must be released or permanently boxed

Only allowed to capture the first Pokémon in every route

No double Pokémon (Only allowed when the first of the species has died)

In the Safari Zone, only one catch is allowed, but if a Pokémon flees, you can try over and over again, until you are able to capture one (Made up by myself)

Every Regional Legendary Pokémon must be defeated, and cannot be captured (This excludes gift Pokémon)

Every Pokémon must be nicknamed too bond more with your Pokémon.


	3. Chapter 2

Since this morning, some strange stuff has happened. First, I was send on a journey with this Charmander that is named Niall. And it is able to talk. Right now, I'm walking on Route 1, followed by Niall.

Out of nothing, a Pidgey stands in front of me.

"You can't cross." It says. I start to laugh. "Do I need to be afraid of you?" I can't imagine this Pidgey being a problem.

"Go on, battle me with that lizard you've got." The Pidgey started to be more threatening.

"Again, why should I fight you, I can just walk past you." I really don't get why this Pidgey is making such a point.

"Lucas, maybe it is a good idea to fight it." Niall starts. "It will give me more exp, and how more exp I've got, how sooner I will evolve."

Niall made the first good argument that day. "Okay, so go use Scratch?" Niall sighed. "You don't know much about this journey thing, do you?" I shake my head. "Fine."

Charmander used Scratch, and three deep wounds remained in the Pidgey's belly, and it cried in pain.

"What are you doing?" I almost scream. "Defeating it, what else." "By killing it?" Niall sighed again. "Listen Lucas, in this world, we need to kill Pokémon before we can get past them, it is them or us, or in our case, just me." I look at Niall and I am surprised with the knowledge it already has. "Okay than, go for the kill."

Another Scratch was enough, and the lifeless body of the Pidgey felt on the ground, ripped apart by six visible stipes of blood in its body.

"Should we go on?" I ask, I don't want to hang around its body any longer. Luckily, Niall approves.

We go to the next city, Viridian City, as fast as possible. One time, a Rattata steps in our way, Niall killed it as well.

These Pokémon are bad, these Pokémon are bad. I need to keep that in mind, we don't kill good guys, we kill the bad guys.

I was relieved when I finally saw the first buildings of Viridian City. I really needed to get out of here.

Once there, I first brought Niall to the Pokémon Centre to heal up. Afterwards, Niall and I walked through town, when a Pokémon battle happened before our very eyes.

A Nidorino, at least I think that is what it was named, was facing of a Ghost type named Gengar. One attack after another followed, until Nidorino charged, and ran towards Gengar, but went straight through it, Gengar easily used another move, and the Nidorino felt lifeless on the ground.

"Wow, that is some heavy stuff over there." I said, and Niall looked at the battle as well. "Na, another one dead, no big deal."

I stopped walking. "I don't know how you can be like that?" "Be like what?" "A living creature was just killed, and you don't seem to mind it at all." I had to keep myself from shouting. "That is because I don't care."

"What if you die?" "Then I die." Niall didn't seem to get my point at all. "Why should you bother, you are a trainer." "I am not, I am only doing this to stop Lance, from killing Pokémon like you." Niall sighed. "To do that, you will have to kill. Well, I will have to kill a lot. And all of our teammates will have to as well."

"Look Lucas." Niall sat down on the ground, I decided to sit next to him. "To be a Pokémon Trainer nowadays, you'll need to be able to accept that sometimes, a friend dies, or a foe, like that Pidgey I killed." On the other side two men walked towards the corpse of the Nidorino, its trainer was nowhere to be seen.

"Where is its trainer?" I asked. "Gone, nobody cares if a Pokémon dies." That really hurt. I didn't really liked Pokémon, but I didn't hate them either. And they are living creatures, so why should they be treated like this?

"I promise to you, right now. Whenever a teammate dies, I will make sure he or she gets a proper funeral." Niall started to laugh. "First seeing, then believing. Within days, you'll be like all the others, and we Pokémon are just tools." I shook my head. "Listen, I didn't want to go on a journey, cause I don't like to murder, but I know I'll have to, but that doesn't mean I will become a beast, and I hope you won't either."

For the first time, I saw a smile on Niall's face. "I won't. You are my trainer, and I will always protect you, that's pretty much my job." I smiled as well. "As long as you remain normal, I remain normal, okay?" "You got yourself a deal." We shook hands, well, I shook Niall's paw.

"Not let's get ourselves some teammates." Niall said. "Yeah, sure, let's get to the Pokémon Mart, and buy some Pokéballs." I stood up, followed by Niall.

The Pokémon Mart, short Pokémart, was a not too big building in the middle of Viridian City. We walked in it, and the owner directly started shouting: "Hey! You came from Pallet Town?" I walk in further, and slowly nod. "You know Prof. Oak, right?" I nod again.

"His order just came in, I need someone to bring it to him. Can I get you to take it to him?" I sighed. "Actually, I just want some Pokéballs." The shopowner sighed as well. "Come on man. Here you go." He gave me a package, and pushed me out of the shop. "Don't come back before you delivered it."

Back onto Route 1 it was, sadly. "You know Lucas, you can just dump it somewhere, nobody will notice." I shook my head. "It is for Oak, and I don't want him to become angry with me." I didn't plan to be in Pallet too long.

I walked back inside Oak's house, and gave him the package, which he was really happy with. Suddenly, I heard a familiar sound behind me.

"Lucas, you back as well?" "Oh, hi Gary. What are you doing here?" "There was this man in Viridian City that said I should head back towards Pallet Town with a package for my grandpa." "You to? I have one as well." Oak started to laugh. "I ordered to things. And I asked to give one at Gary and on at Lucas."

"Now you are here, I have something for you: For each one of you a Pokédex. In this machine, you can record data on Pokémon. This was once my dream, but I am too old to fill it now. Will you two help me?" Gary and I nodded. "Sure grandpa, I would love to help." "Yeah, me too. I need something to do while I am on the way."

Gary's Squirtle Blast was talking with Niall, Niall told proudly about his first kill.

Once Gary and I where outside, I wanted to ask him about his vision on the trainership. "Gary, listen up." "What's wrong buddy?" "Niall killed two Pok's." Gary looked at me. "Blast killed one as well. I think that is what they should do. Weights hard on you, doesn't it?" I nodded. "It does. Right for my eyes, a Nidorino was killed, and its trailer just walked away like it wasn't a big deal." "I know, nobody cares about their Pokémon. But we are different, right?"

Gary laughed, and so could I. "Yeah, we are different." "Good, I'll see you around, if you need anything, just give me a call, okay?" "Yeah, you too." Gary nodded. "I will, see ya." "See ya."

I stood up as well, and started walking. Niall walked along. "Good friend of you, this Gary?" "Yeah, he is my cousin and my best friend." "Then I am happy he is the one leaving with Blast. Blast is a little bit nervous over this entire trainer stuff, so I am really glad he is in good hands." I smiled. "There are no better hands than Gary's"

We walked back on Route 1. "So now back to Viridian City and buy some Pokéballs?" I asked. "Not needed. I stole 5 when you were talking to that man." Niall started to laugh, and I was kinda happy he stole them, now I didn't need to walk from here to Viridian and back, all over again.

While Niall and I were still laughing, another Pidgey came walking closer. "O. O crap, you are a trainer. Time to fly!" "Wait, why didn't you attack us?" I wondered why this Pidgey ran instead of attacking us, like the last one did. "I don't want to die, I try to keep myself alive."

"Lucas." Niall started. "Maybe we should capture him." I nodded, it would be cool to have another teammate. "Hey Pidgey, do you want to become a part of our team?" The Pidgey shook his head. "No thanks, I rather stay alive." "I am not a trainer that doesn't care about Pokémon. I do care." "He does, believe me. He was having a hard time when I killed a wild Pidgey, which he didn't even knew."

The Pidgey landed. "Okay than, let's battle. But if I think you're going for a kill, I'm flying off." Niall nodded. "Of course I won't." "Niall, use Scratch!" Strange. This time, no red marks on the Pidgey's body.

"How did you do that?" "Did what?" "Not leaving any mark?" "I don't want to kill it, so I use Scratch without using my nails. It hurts him, but doesn't leave too much of a scar."

"Ehm, okay. Pokéball, go!" I was in luck today, one Pokéball was enough to capture the Pidgey. I decided to let him out as well, just as Niall.

"Congratulations, you captured me, and I am still alive. So tell me, who are you guys?" "My name is Lucas, and this is Niall." " Nice to meet you." Niall added, it seemed honest. "My name is Wally. If I were you, I wouldn't remain here for long, this isn't the nicest route in Kanto. A lot of bloodthirsty Poks."

Talking about other Pokémon: A Rattata walked towards us as well. "I'll take care of it." One Gust attack, and the Rattata flew against a tree. Another one was good for the kill. I started to get used to the fact we needed to kill to survive.

"Let's go to Viridian, you guys can use some healing."


	4. Chapter 3

While I was sitting on a launch in Viridian City, Niall and Wally where chatting a little bit.

"So, you lived your entire live on Route 1, doesn't sound to interesting to me." Niall said, not seeing that could hurt Wally, Niall was still a little bit immature.

"Well, living with a Pokémon Professor your entire live seems even less interesting." Wally answered, making sure to get Niall back, who still didn't noticed this was not a conversation, but more a rally of insults.

"Well, that's why I decided to go on this journey, so I could learn more about the world, see more. Even if it gets me killed, rather dying out here than of old age with the old man." Niall looked up to me.

"Talking about traveling, say trainer, we don't get anywhere when we stick around here, are we?" Niall looked up to me.

"You're right, maybe we should get towards the next area, what is it, Viridian Forest, right?" Niall nodded. "Or that route over there." He pointed towards some trees and stuff, with, far away, one big building visible.

"I don't think we can go there already, it looks like that is the building of the Pokémon League." I answered him. "Unless you guys want to take on the big guys already, I suggest we go into Viridian Forest."

Niall and Wally agreed. "I've heard stories about bugs in Viridian Forest." Wally said. "You're not going to tell me you are afraid of bugs, are you?" "No, I like to 'play' with them." "?" "Okay fine, I am going to eat all the bugs in the entire forest, now happy?"

I stood up, and walked towards the Forest, it was at the other side of the city, and it was kind a scary. Wally was full of confidence, ready for his 'play date'. Niall didn't seem to matter either, all those bugs, a Fire type loves it too.

While walking through the gate, I started to get creeped up even more, not that I'm afraid of bugs, it's just, one big forest filled with those killing machines. Even with Niall and Wally, I'm not sure we can take them all on.

"I can already smell them." Wally said, he seemed happier than ever. "Just stay near me, don't fly off." "Of course not, why should I want to fly off out of nothing?"

"Trainer, stop there!" A boy with a net and a weird hat came walking towards me. "I want to battle you." I looked down at Niall and Wally, and nodded. "Yeah sure, why not?"

"Great, Weedle, come on out." Before I could react, Wally had flown over there, and was now eating the boys Weedle.

"Hey, that's my Pokémon." "Wally stop it." "Caterpie, kill that Pidgey." Needless to say, Caterpie was the second Pokémon disappearing in Wally's beak.

"Mommy!" The boy ran off crying. "Well done Wally, you made that boy cry." "I can't help it, he had some delicious Pokémon."

"Mister." I heard someone calling me, but nobody was around, so I decided to just let it go.

"Mister." This was starting to get irritating. "Who are you?" "Down here mister." I looked down, and a brown wormlike creature the kid had called Weedle was crawling towards me.

"Don't show me to that Pidgey, but could you maybe capture me?" "Why do you want to come with me?" "Because live in this forest is no live for me, I mean, every time somebody comes in here with a Charmander we are scared to death, and not to talk about those Pidgey, they are the worst, scarifying."

"Trainer, to who are you talking?" Wally came flying towards me. "Look! Another tasteful bug, this one is for me." Wally was flying right into it. I heard the Weedle screaming, and I did the only thing I could do: I threw a Pokéball at the Weedle, and I captured it before Wally could snap it.

"Where did it go?" Wally was confused. "You didn't capture it, did you?" "Actually, I did." "Why on earth? I wanted to eat it, it looked delicious." "There are enough other bugs you can eat, you leave this one alone."

I decided to let the Weedle out again. "Thank you so much mister, my name is Lisa." "Nice to meet you Lisa, I am Lucas, the lizard is Niall and the bird is Wally."

"It is nice to meet you mister." "Yeah, let's get grinding. Niall, would you mind keeping Wally away from Lisa?" Niall shook his head. "Not at all trainer, we wouldn't like Wally killing our team members, would we?" "But, please?" Wally tried. I shook my head. "Not a change Wally, now, let's go training."

"Hey, trainer." Niall was pointing at another kid, looked the same as the first one. "Fight this one." "Yeah sure."

"Another trainer, are you ready to battle?" I nodded. "Okay, Weedle go!" "Niall, use Scratch again?" "Are you sure? I can use other moves as well." That was a surprise, I don't know too much about Pokémon, so I had no idea he already learned another move.

"Well then, use it." "It is called Ember, it is a Fire type move." "Just use it." "Sure trainer." So Niall used Ember, the Weedle weirdly survived, and used some move its trainer called 'Poison Sting'.

"Niall, another one of those Embers." "Trainer, I… I don't feel too good." Niall fell down on his knees. It scared me to death. "Niall!" "I…. What's…. I can't….." Wally and Lisa looked shocked. "What's wrong?" "No, Niall!" I didn't knew what to do. Wally quickly flew forwards, and killed the Weedle, the boy ran off.

In the meantime, Niall had fallen onto the ground, he didn't looked good at all. "Niall, say something." I was starting to panic for real now. What if Niall, you know, died? "Can you get…. me…. to a centre?" Was all Niall could get out.

"Yeah, right away." I picked my starter up, and ran towards what I thought was the end of Viridian Forest, but I quickly came to the solution I was lost.

"Shit, no. Niall, hold on." I felt a tear welling up in my eye. "Niall, stay with me buddy, stay with me." I trembled and fell, holding Niall tight, so he wouldn't get hurt.

"Wally, find out where we can out of this mess." "Yes trainer." He flew up, and left.

I sat down, looking as the live was slipping away from Niall, and then I realized something: I already started to really like Niall. It had been two days since I left Pallet Town, but the bond between the Pokémon and me was already growing stronger, and I knew, I couldn't let my friend die.

"I won't let you go." I whispered. At that same time, Wally came flying back. "Trainer, this way!" He screamed, and I stood up and started running again, Niall in my arms, Lisa holding on tightly on my shoulder.

"Hold on a little longer Niall, were almost there." Niall didn't say anything, just heavy breathing. "Come on." I sighted when I saw the big sign that said 'Entering Viridian City, enjoy your time in the city that's always green.'

I ran passed it, straight towards the big, red building. I kicked open the doors.

"Nurse, something is really wrong with my Charmander!" I shove another client aside, and laid Charmander on the table. "Please." I begged. Nurse Joy, not too fond of my entrance, quickly saw what was wrong.

"Follow me." Nurse Joy walked towards an examine room, in which she laid Niall, quickly adjusting all the technical machines to help it get better in no time.

"You better get some antidotes in the Pokémart, it cures poisoning." So that's what it was, Niall was poisoned. Of course. When I think about it, Poison Sting, it makes a lot of sense.

"Do you think he's making it?" "Yeah he is, don't worry. Now were speaking, why are you worried? It is just a Pokémon?" I looked at the Nurse. "For me it isn't. Niall is my starter, and currently one of my best friends, I just met him, but I already can't bear the thought of him dying."

Strangely, Joy started to smile. "So you are one of a little group of people that actually care about Pokémon, I'm happy you are. There aren't much people that care about Pokémon the way you and I do, you see, most people that come here are just hoping that the Pokémon survives, so it wasn't a waste of training." "Can those people talk with their Pokémon as well?" I asked.

Joy shook her head. "Everybody can talk with his or her first Pokémon, but that quickly disappears when the relationship between the two doesn't grow. To be able to speak to a Pokémon, after you have had it for a while, you're relationship needs to grow, if it doesn't, than you can't understand the Pokémon language anymore, that's the point when many trainers hold up their shoulders and start neglecting their Pokémon."

I was shocked to hear this. I mean, I knew people where bad news for a Pokémon, but that most trainers can't even talk to them anymore, I sure hope I will never be not able to talk to them.

"It seems like your Charmander is all fine again." I looked through the window as Niall jumped of the table, and walked toward the door.

"Before I go, Nurse Joy, can you maybe explain a little bit how the Pokédex works?" She smiled, again. "Sure, see, you can see your Pokémon in this, the map of Kanto, and the Pokémon you've seen already."

We quickly informed Wally and Lisa, and when we walked out, I felt the urge to talk to them about this.

"Guys, wait a minute." "What's wrong mister?" "Problem, trainer?" "What's the matter?" Asked Lisa, Wally and Niall respectively.

"I want to talk with you about something: You see, Niall almost died, and I don't want that to happen, I also don't want to not be able to understand you anymore. So the first thing we are going to do, is that you all call me Lucas, not trainer or mister or sir, just Lucas. Okay?""

"Yeah sure Lucas." They didn't seem to have a problem with it.

"Second, I understand more and more what a terrible live Pokémon have with trainers, I promise you I will never become like that, and if I do, please, tell me. "

They all nodded again.

"And lastly, this is going to be a rocky ride, changes are that not every one of you comes out alive, same goes for the Pokémon that might join us on our journey. The gyms, other trainers, they are all not ready to give in or up, so they will fight their hardest to bring us done. If you think right now, I don't think I can do this, you are allowed to go."

"I'm not going anywhere, going with you is way more fun than what I used to do." Wally said.

"Indeed sir, I mean Lucas, when I lived in Viridian Forest, changes where I would be killed by a trainer, so if I die than or after getting stronger on you team, I will chose the last one." Lisa said.

I nodded in relief, and then looked at Niall.

"Of course I stay with you. You just saved my life, and I hope I can ever save yours as well." He smiled.

"Come here guys." I kneeled down and opened my arms, and we started to hug. Now, I need to say, I'm not that emotional guy, but after what happened with Niall, I guess my emotions are loosened up a bit.

"So Viridian Forest is first off the radar, let's go to Route 22, nearby, and train there a little bit.

While we were walking on the route, I had the feeling we were being followed, and seconds later, a Mankey jumped in our path.

"You dare to cross paths with the mighty Balboa?" "Assuming you are Balboa, we didn't cross your path, you jumped there yourself."

"Never mind, I can't allow any trainer to go and kill me. You'll need to capture me, or leave me alone." He said.

"Wally, use, ehm, Gust?" "Yeah sure, one Gust as ordered." Wally blew the so-called Balboa against a nearby tree, and I quickly threw a Pokéball.

 _Ding…. Ding….. Ding…._


	5. Chapter 4

" _Wally, use, ehm, Gust?" "Yeah sure, one Gust as ordered."_

… _._

 _Ding…. Ding….. Ding…._

… _._

 _Click_

I had watched in full tension, just as my Pokémon for that matter. When the ball clicked, I was really happy, as well as relieved.

"Well done Wally. Balboa, come on out." I let out the Mankey Pokémon.

"What is this? I, the mighty Balboa have been captured. Now I shall do whatever my master commands, as it is written in the law of Route 22"

"What on earth are you talking about?" Wally started.

"I think he is kind a scary?" Lisa added to the mix.

"So you will do anything I order you?" I wanted to know for sure. I have three that obey me but question my moves as well, a Pokémon that obeys and agrees would be great.

"I shall execute my orders without any complains master." Balboa said, making a slight bow.

"You can call me Lucas, no need for master."

"I have heard your command, and I shall execute master Lucas."

"Sigh. It's time to keep moving."

"Lucas, is that you?" I heard a familiar voice calling my name, and when I turned around I saw him: My best friend, Gary.

"How've you been doing?" I asked him, as I walked forward to give him our usual handshake: High-five, low five and a box. Nothing special, just our little thing.

"I've been doing great, I captured another Pokémon already, but I see I'm already far behind, since you already captured four Pokémon." Gary laughed. "I knew you were good at this."

"I'm not even that good. One of them voluntarily joined." Gary looked surprised. "Voluntarily, I never knew they did that."

He gave me a pet on my shoulder. "You are a born trainer Lucas." I got off a smile.

"How about a small friendly battle, just for fun?" He asked. "Yeah sure." For the first time I was really looking forward to battle. Strange, being out here starts changing my mind.

"Great, I will start off with my Pidgey!" Gary let out his Pidgey, which looked similar to Wally.

"It doesn't have a name yet?" I asked. Gary shook his head. "I can't figure out if one and this Pidgey is way too stubborn to tell me if he already has one. He didn't wanted to be captured."

"Maybe I can help you think of one. Wally, you go to, and remember: No killing."

"Yeah sure, no killing." Wally sighed. "Wally use Gust." "Pidgey, Tackle"

While Pidgey had to come close to hit Wally, Wally could attack from a far, so within seconds, the Pidgey laid on the ground, admitting defeat.

"Damn, it didn't even wanted to fight. It just went down as soon as it could." Gary returned his Pidgey to his Pokéball.

"I think I might now a name." I smiled. "Viril." "Viril?" "Yeah, for as much as I remember from school, viriliter is Latin for quit, and since your Pidgey quitted that soon, maybe Viril will fit it."

Gary started to laugh. "That sounds like a great name. Thanks Lucas." I held up my thumb.

"Now for the real job. Blast, come on out!" "Balboa, take this one, okay?" "I shall execute my orders."

Balboa stood right across Blast. Blast being fully relaxed, while Balboa was bloody serious.

"Blast, use Bubble." "Balboa, use Low Kick." This time, the roles where switched, and Balboa had to take a Bubble before hitting Blast with a Low Kick.

"Blast, another Bubble." Before Balboa could even react, he got hit again. But still stood up, determined to win.

"Blast, that's enough. We don't want to kill him." Blast nodded, and turned around. Balboa turned around. "Apologies for failure master Lucas." "No sweat, we just need to train a little bit more, that's all." Balboa nodded. "Thank you for forgiveness master Lucas."

"It was nice battling you Lucas, be careful okay?" "Yeah sure, you too." Gary and I shook hands, and he walked off, waving as he and Blast walked back to Viridian City.

As I turned around, I saw Balboa still being a little bit disappointed in his own performance in the last battle, so I kneeled down next to him, trying to get his self-esteem back.

"Don't be that hard on yourself, Blast has trained way and way more than you have, at least, for now." I stood back up, now facing all four of my team members. "It's time that we start training as well."

The next couple of hours where a lot of training, while doing that, I found out a new feature of the Pokédex as well, the move set of my Pokémon and the levels they are on:

Niall is currently at level 11 and has the moves Scratch, Growl and Ember.

Wally is also level 11 and has the moves Tackle, Sand-Attack and Gust.

Balboa is at level 10 right now and has the moves Scratch, Leer (no idea what that does) and Low Kick.

The only problem was Lisa: We tried to train by fighting wild Pokémon, but she didn't even dare to attack it, and if it attacked her, I needed one of the others to jump in, for that reason, I saw she was still at level 5. Poor thing.

"I am really sorry Lucas." She said, but I shook my head. "No worries, when you're ready you're ready, and besides, I don't think it is a good idea to use you against Brock." I saw her let go of a small smile. "Let's get back into Viridian Forest, I've bought some antidotes, so we can get going.

Back into the forest in which Niall almost died, I felt the chills come back up again, and I tell you, it isn't a pleasant feeling. Even with two Pokémon being strong against all the bugs here, the eyes that stare at you…

How further we got into the forest, the better I actually started to feel, as I was born in Pallet Town, the business of Viridian City wasn't something I was used to. Sure, it was close by my home, but back in Pallet we don't hear anything from it.

Besides, my Pokémon seemed to enjoy the presence of the threes over the city as well, as they were all relaxing and loosening up, a big contrast to when we were in Viridian City, when they were stiffed with tension.

"I see you guys enjoy the forest as well." I finally said, breaking through the nice silence that the forest had over it.

"Yeah, in the forest, you can really get back to who you really are." Niall said. "Instead of the city, where everybody does the same thing, eats the same stuff, behaves in the same proper way." I once again was surprised by the wisdom Niall already possessed.

"Hey you, trainer!" Another bug catcher ran towards us, this one had thrown his net away at the sight of us.

"Let's battle!" I sighed, of course. "Sure." "Great, go Metapod." Suddenly, I came up with an idea.

"Say kid, do you have more Pokémon?" "Yeah sure, I've got another Metapod." I smiled. "Send them both out at the same time, Niall can take them both."

The boy started to laugh sarcastically. "Of course he can't, but if you are so desperate to lose your Pokémon, sure." And now Niall was facing two Metapod.

"You know what to do." I almost wanted to walk on, but I wanted to see the expression on this kids face when he lost. Which happened quite fast, cause both Metapod went down after one Ember.

"What! How on earth did you beat both of my Metapod!" I gave the boy my 'are you serious?' look, but he clearly missed it. "Because your Metapod are weak and my Charmander is strong."

Not to be mean, but it has been a long day and I was quite irritated by the kid.

"You are so mean!" And he ran off. "He is right, you where mean." Niall said. "I know, I'm just really tired." "Well, why don't you go to sleep master Lucas." Balboa added.

I started to laugh. "I don't really feel pleasant about sleeping in a forest filled with bugs. "I understand master Lucas, but why don't we than go through that little house over there, maybe there's a village behind that as well."

The gate must have slipped my mind, but it was there, we had made it through Viridian Forest. Luckily.

"That's a good idea Balboa, let's go." As we ran through the gate, happiness started to fill my inside. As much as I loved the forest, I also knew the next gym was on the other side. And once again I was surprised by how much I already care about the gyms and stuff.

One the other side, the overwhelming Pewter City took our sight, it was big, even bigger than Viridian City had been, and our first gym battle awaits us here.

"We made it."


	6. Chapter 5

"So this is Pewter City." Niall sighed. "It is so big!"

"Yeah, can we go back to the Bug forest?" Wally asked, but Niall shook his head.

"No way. I want to check this city out."

"Well, that's one for Pewter and one against. Lisa, Balboa, what are your opinions?" I asked. Since all of us where in this together, it was only fair all of them got to vote.

"I-I don't know. Viridian Forest is home, but I also really like to see something else." Lisa stammered.

"I will follow your direct orders master Lucas." Balboa informed as he saluted.

"Okay, then we'll go into Pewter first." I said. Niall cheered up, but Wally directly opened its beak to say something, but was shut down by Balboa.

"Master Lucas's orders are final. Discussing is useless."

"I dislike this one more and more the more he says." Wally growled, but he did shut up.

"Hey guys, look. It's a trainer!" a young Rattata ran towards the rest of its herd, which lived on Route 2 near Pewter City.

"No Ryder. Why do you always want to get killed?" Another Rattata snapped.

"I won't get killed, I'll kill all of his Pokémon, and then him if I'm lucky." The Rattata called Ryder laughed.

"No you won't. You will easily get killed, see what he has? There is a Mankey walking next to him, that one alone will one-shot you." The other Rattata countered. "Now enough, everyone, where not trying to take down this trainer. Ryder, get back on the lookout. Koene, Bilvas, you get back into the holes."

"Okay chief." Bilvas ran back into the hole, Koene looked back and nodded.

"Damn, why can't I do something I like for once?" Ryder snapped, and ran off.

"Ryder, get back here!" the older Rattata said.

"I'll get him." Koene screamed and ran after him, straight towards the trainer with the Mankey.

"Then it is decided, we will go to the museum first." I said, seeing Niall, Liza and Balboa nod in agreement.

"I don't think where going anywhere soon." Wally said, sounding concerned. "Lucas, look!" I followed his wing and I saw two Rattata run towards us. One angry, the other one looked concerned.

"Prepare to die trainer!" Ryder screamed, as he jumped in.

Before I could even react, Wally had blasted him away with Gust.

"So, a though one…" the Rattata growled.

"Ryder! Chief says we have to get back, woah!" the other Rattata ran in and got intimidated by, well, me and my Pokémon.

"No Koene, go back yourself. I will fight this guy to my death." The other Rattata which was called Ryder said angrily, after which he jumped up to hit Wally.

"Balboa, use Low Kick." "I will master Lucas."

As Balboa's feet went towards Ryder, I saw the other one, called Koene, bounce against Ryder and take the Kick, which blew him away.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Capture it." Niall said.

I nodded, a Rattata might be a nice addition to the team, so I threw a Pokéball, which hit Koene and directly let it in.

"No! I won't tolerate you capturing my herd member. Prepare to die." Ryder jumped up to attack me straight on, but once again my Pokémon saved me. I saw Balboa kick it to the ground, where Ryder remained, blood dripping out of his mouth.

"You… you killed it!" Lisa cried.

"He attacked master Lucas, and I cannot let that happen." Balboa explained. "I am sorry miss Lisa, but my master Lucas is my main priority." He then bowed.

"It's okay. Let's go get you guys healed in the Pokémon Centre." We walked away. Turning my head, I threw one last glance at the now dead Rattata, but I knew it was either him or us, and I then prefer him.

Nevertheless, the mood had changed. Lisa was terrified, and even Wally and Niall where still a little bit shocked. Which was still strange, since killing was such a familiar thing nowadays.

"You're Pokémon are all fully healed." Nurse Joy commented happily.

"Thanks." I growled and walked off, not in the mood for her happy voice.

Outside I decided to let the new captured Rattata out.

"Ryder?! Ryder, where are you?" The Rattata directly ran off when I released him from his Pokéball. Wally quickly flew after him.

"Where do you think you're going?" He was now flying above him.

"I need to find him. I can't return to Chief without Ryder." The Rattata which I thought was named Koene panted.

"That's gonna be hard, cause Balboa over there killed him." Wally blurted out. I could just see something break in Koene's eyes.

"You….. You killed Ryder?" He said with an aggressive undertone towards Balboa."

"Yes I did." Balboa simply answered. "Master Lucas was in danger, so I killed him."

"Go to hell with your master Lucas, you can't just kill someone because 'Master Lucas was in danger'. Let that guy defend himself." Koene screamed.

"Master Lucas is my…" "Just stop, okay." I said firmly. "Koene, I'm sorry about Ryder, but he wanted to kill us."

"How do you know my name?" Koene screamed.

"I heard Ryder scream it at you several times." I simply answered.

"Well, you are not allowed to say that name ever again. And I will get revenge for Ryder, I…" He stopped talking and started crying.

"Dammit. Ryder was the only one in the heard who really cared for me. Chief only thinks about killing weak trainers, and Bilvas is a giant jerk." Koene sobbed. "But Ryder, he was really something different. He was born a few years before me, and was there when I was born. My mom died quickly after my birth, but he always told me how much she loved me and why my name is Koene, it means something with bravery."

Listening to this, I felt pretty bad about killing Ryder and seeing Balboa, he felt the same. Lisa started to cry as well, and sprinted over to Koene to hug him.

"Get off of me." He snapped.

"We all are so sorry we killed Ryder." She whispered, and he seemed to calm down.

"There you are!" two Rattata came running towards us.

"Chief? Bilvas?" Koene freed himself from Lisa's embracement. "What are you doing here?"

"You and Ryder took so long, so we came to look for you. We already found Ryder….." the older one, presumably Chief, explained.

"So come with us Koene." Bilvas said.

Koene looked up at me, strangely, and at my team and then back at Chief and Bilvas.

"No. I'm staying here." He shocked everybody. "The only reason I was part of your herd was because of Ryder, and now he's gone, I will leave to."

"What! You will regret this decision Koene." Chief growled, and jumped forward, but Niall blocked him.

"No way, Koene is part of our group now, so leave him alone." Niall said aggressively. He was joined by Wally, Lisa and even Balboa.

"Just leave." Wally commented. "Might be best for you." Lisa added, even she seemed quite angry.

"We will be back." Chief said, and ran off, followed by Bilvas.

"Why did you do that?" Koene asked at my team when the two other Rattata had ran off.

"You are a part of our team and we protect each other." Niall said.

All of this made me smile: My journey was only a few days on the way and I had already five Pokémon, which are all non-killing machines, instead of most of the others in the wild. At that moment, I felt happy.


	7. Chapter 6

"There is no way on earth that you can beat the gym." Koene told Niall, who got furious just to hear that.

"Of course we can, we have Balboa." Niall pointed at the Mankey, who nodded.

"In battle, I will win for master Lucas."

"Here we go again…" Koene sighed.

This argument had been going on ever since we told Koene we wanted to take on the gym. He doesn't think we could take Brock down, but the rest of the team feels otherwise.

"I suggest we train some more first." Wally interfered, it was the first time he said something in this argument.

"Actually, Wally is right. You guys do need to get a little bit stronger. Let's check my Pokédex." I informed my team members.

I took the Pokédex and the levels where not at all gym leader worthy: While Niall, Wally and Balboa where all at level 11, mainly due to some training in Viridian Forest, Lisa was still at level 5 and Koene even worse, level 3.

"I can easily catch up will all of you guys." Koene laughed.

"Yeah sure." Niall said, and Wally nodded in agreement.

"Well guys, no time like the present. Let's go." I escorted everybody on the way from the Pokémon Centre to the nearest route to train, which was the route I caught Koene on, Route 2.

"Why do we need to train here? What if Chief and Bilvas find us?" Koene asked.

"Then we'll beat them, right Lucas?" Wally asked combative.

"That's right. But first, you guys really need some levels. So here's what where going to do. Training is the most irritating part of being a trainer, that's what I've heard, but also the most deadly one." I started, but I was quickly interrupted.

"Aren't battles with gym leaders the most deadly ones?" Niall asked.

"No, I think it is battles with an Elite 4 or Champion." Koene continued.

"You guys are really not well informed. Those Rocket grunts take most lives." Wally smiled confident.

"You are all wrong." I interrupted the rally. "All those things take a lot of lives, but I have been informed that most Pokémon die during training. Because that's when everyone is least regardful. So we ain't doing that. Wally, Niall and Balboa, you guys are pretty good and you can easily handle all the Pokémon on this route, so we will do a so-called switch battle plan."

All of them looked confused.

"I'll explain." I sighed. I hoped they would have got it, but apparently, they didn't. "First, Lisa or Koene will start the battle, than they will quickly get out and one of you three gets in and finishes the opponent." I further explained.

"So they switch out but do get some experience from the battle." Niall said. "That's pretty smart."

"Okay master Lucas, we will do that." Balboa said.

This went pretty well. Lisa and Koene continuingly started a battle against either another Rattata or a Pidgey, and the other three finished it.

Niall, with his paws full of Pidgey blood and feathers, came walking towards me. "Don't you think we have trained enough? Can you look at the levels?"

We had been training for two hours straight and taking other Pokémon's lives had started to feel as the usual, although I didn't forget that all of them we killed where controlled by the Lance's machine and couldn't be saved anyway.

"Let me see. You and Wally are level 13 now, Balboa is an impressive level 14. Lisa and Koene are at level 7, both."

"That's quite enough, don't you think?" Koene said. "Why would you use us against Brock? That guy has rock type Pokémon so only Balboa makes sense."

"That's true, but I still want you guys to get stronger. The stronger you are the less likely you are to die." I explained, but Koene shook his head.

"That's what everybody says, but it isn't true. The stronger we get, the stronger our opponents are. Our changes stay the same." He explained. "The only way in which our changes would increase is if you would send all of us to the pc."

Niall started to laugh. "Well, I can tell you this: I'd rather die earlier as a strong Charizard than later on as an old Charmander." I started to laugh and the others did as well.

"I guess you're right." Koene said, winking at Niall.

"Hey!" A Pidgey came flying down towards us. "Do you happen to have killed a Pidgey on Route 1?" It asked.

"Well, my team defeated a lot of Pidgey already, so to be fully honest, I can't remember." I was kinda shocked at how easily I forgot all those kills.

"Don't you remember Lucas, the first kill I ever made was a Pidgey on route 1 that attacked us." Niall remembered.

"That Pidgey was my brother." The Pidgey, now angry, continued. "So I will take revenge for him."

"Haha." Wally started to laugh. "You and what army?"

"I don't need an army you traitor, I myself am strong enough." The Pidgey laughed.

"Let me take him Lucas, it will be easy." Wally begged.

"Okay, Pidgey vs Pidgey sounds fair." I said.

"Wally, use Gust!" Wally flapped with his wings and a small tornado raged towards the Pidgey, who wasn't prepared and got caught up in it.

"Now, use Tackle to finish it off." I commanded, and Wally nodded.

"Oh no." The furious Pidgey flew away. "I will make a kill, that's for sure." It flew straight for Lisa, who was so in shock she couldn't flee.

"No, Niall, Ember!" I screamed in panic, but Niall missed and the Pidgey was almost at Lisa.

"Don't you dare!" I heard Koene shout as he jumped onto the Pidgey and started biting the Pidgey in its neck, small drips of blood fell to the ground.

"Then you will be my victim." The Pidgey smiled, and suddenly turned upside down in mid-air, which made Koene fall onto the ground. Within seconds the Pidgey was back and started pecking Koene in his neck. Wally was quickly there and killed the Pidgey with one peck in its neck.

All that time, I was completely frozen in shock, but now I ran towards Koene. His neck was bleeding heavily and I saw blood also dripped from his mouth.

"Koene, let's get you to a Pokémon Centre quickly." I wanted to lift him up.

"No…. It's too late." He sighed, it was clear he had a hard time talking. A tear fell from my eyes.

"I'm so sorry. It is all my fault." I said slowly crying.

"No…. Like I said, our changes where never big, this was supposed to happen sooner or later. I want to thank you all for the wonderful time I had with you." He said. "You freed me…."

After those words his eyes closed and his head fell to the ground.

"No Koene!" Lisa screamed as she hurried towards him.

"I'm sorry Lisa, he's gone." I said, and the others all made their way towards their fallen team member.

"We should bury him." Niall said.

"I'll start digging." Balboa said, this time not even looking at me for confirmation.

"You know what we should do? We should fight and defeat Brock right now. In Koene's honor." Wally said, after we buried Koene and put a nice tombstone above it. The best we could find.

"I agree." Niall said, and Lisa nodded as well.

"I guess you will need me for that Master Lucas. I will be honored to fight those battles for Koene." Balboa commented.

I looked at all of them and nodded. Time to kick Brock's ass.

After the team got all healed up we headed towards the gym, and the big building looked, to be fully honest, a little bit terrifying. One part of me wanted to go back to Route 2 and train everybody up to level 100 before taking on this gym, but I knew I had to get past this gym, together with my Pokémon.

"Let's go." I simply announced, and I opened the heavy doors into the gym.

"Hi kid, are you here to challenge the gym leader?" A boy, way younger than I was asked.

"Yeah I am."

"Well, you are still lightyears away from defeating Brock, so you will have to fight me first." He smiled.

"So be it." I said emotionless.

"Go Geodude."

"Balboa, use Karate Chop."

Balboa nodded and ran forward as he kicked the flying rock right in its face, and with the power Balboa's kick contained, his feet went straight through the Geodude, killing it directly.

"What!? Well, go Sandshrew."

"Balboa, step back." I said.

"No master Lucas, I can finish this one as well." The Mankey explained quickly.

"I know you can, but I need you to be ready for Brock. Wally can take care of this one."

"Okay Master Lucas." Balboa let himself be returned and I released Wally. To the day of writing I believe that Wally took and still takes the blame for Koene's death. And it changed him. Of course, outside of battle he was still all outgoing fun just as he is nowadays. But during battle, he is cold hard, nothing can break his focus. And this was the first time I saw it.

"Wally, use Gust." I ordered. No response, just action.

"Sandshrew! Scratch it!" The young trainer screamed, but Wally didn't even let it come close.

"Another Gust." The Sandshrew was blown into the nearby wall, and fell dead to the ground.

"Damn. I'll admit it, you are pretty good. But just to learn you something, lightyears measures distance, not time." He walked away.

"Brock!" I screamed, not caring about the kid at all. "I'm here to challenge you."

"Is that right?" A young man, around his 20th I'd say, came walking down.

"I believe I should accept it." Brock simply informed. "I'm sorry in advance for killing your Pokémon."

"Yeah, I'm sorry in advance to." I snapped.

"A cocky kid. Hmm, that's quite irritating." He softly laughed, and I started to think I didn't had Brock, but Giovanni in front of me. I had seen Giovanni on the television multiple times, and I got annoyed every time I heard that guy talking.

"Let's just battle okay? Balboa, go!" I commanded, and let Balboa free.

"Well okay then. Geodude, finish the Mankey off." Another Geodude appeared, and it seemed to be rather annoyed. Let's put an end to his boredom.

"Mankey, Karate Chop."

"Geodude, dodge it." Brock seemed to have even less interest in the battle than Geodude had, and one Karate Chop was almost enough to finish it: The mark of Balboa's foot was recognizable on Geodude's head.

"Now Geodude, use Tackle."

"Balboa, don't let it touch you, now use another Karate Chop."

I watched as Balboa jumped up a little, making Geodude miss, and then landed on top of the Rock type, splitting it in halve.

"One down, one more to go." I grinned.

"Well, I guess that's easy play. Don't worry, I'll just leave the corpse there, maybe you can use it in battle against this second Pokémon. Onix go!"

I was simply disgusted by the little care Brock had for his Pokémon. I mean, of course nobody cared, but Brock was the worst.

"Balboa, Karate Chop!"

"Onix, use Tackle."

Balboa's Karate Chop went straight through Onix, leaving a hole in the Rock Snake's body. But Onix didn't seem to care, and charged at Balboa, who was hit with a full frontal Tackle attack.

Balboa fell on the ground and I saw a wound next to his right eye which was bleeding.

"Balboa, I'll switch you out."

"No master Lucas. I stay in here to fight." His response was.

"But…. You could die!" I screamed in agony. I really didn't want another team member to die.

"If it is my destiny to die in this battlefield than it be so Master Lucas." Balboa saluted, and went off alone.

"Get yourself together Lucas." I mumbled against myself.

"Okay than. If that's what you want. Use Karate Chop, once again."

"So you can talk to your Pokémon…." Brock said as he observed me and Balboa. "To bad I will have to kill one of them. Onix, Tackle."

Balboa saw the giant snake coming towards him, and he simply dodged after hitting Onix again, this time against its head. The Snake started to cry in pain.

"Finish it off. Use Bind." Brock commanded.

Onix' tail started to slide around Balboa and hold him tight, squeezing him to death. Balboa's eyes started to glow in a heated fury and I saw him kicking around, kicking more and more rock off Onix. The rock snake kept crying, and eventually let go.

"Now, finish it off with Karate Chop." I screamed. Balboa hit Onix before the last one or Brock could respond and with the last chop, Balboa split Onix' head from its snake-like body, killing it.

"Well, I guess you won." Brock sighed, and tossed me a badge. "Now leave. Thanks to you I need to get a new Onix. You know how hard they are to find?"

"You will not need to find another Onix Brock. You are under arrest!" I heard a voice behind me, and several police men and a female one ran into the gym, together with several Growlithe's and one bigger one called Arcanine.

"What no!" Brock tried to run, but the Arcanine jumped onto him, taking care he stayed down.

 _Hours later_

My Pokémon where silently awaiting my return at the Pokémon center, at least I thought they were. They looked like it when I returned.

"So, what did the officer say?" Niall asked.

"That's a long story." I started. "First I want to check on Balboa."

After the gym battle I had to go with the police for an interrogatory and an explanation, but not after I had brought Balboa to the Pokémon center to heal. He was in pretty bad shape.

"Hi buddy." I walked up to his bed, where he was now resting.

"Hello Master Lucas." Balboa said, growling in pain while saying those words.

"Don't speak." I responded. "I'm just glad you are alright. That was quite the battle you fought. I'm proud of you."

Those last words made him gloat.

"So, what did the police say?" Lisa asked curious.


	8. Chapter 7

"Yeah, what did they tell you?" Wally asked.

"That's quite the story." I started. When I saw my Pokémon gesturing to continue, I decided to go with it. "The police is trying to take down the league, but they cannot possibly do that. The gym leader have some kind of protection in their gym, so only real trainers can enter. When I beat Brock, this protection shivered for a few moments, so the police, who have been watching us since we entered Pewter, could invade and arrest Brock."

"But couldn't one of them pretend to be a trainer?" Niall asked.

"They said they'd tried, but it failed and the guy that tried is buried on Route 2." I answered.

"How…?" Wally was shocked.

"They suppose Onix murdered him." I said.

"But with other words, we guys have a job to do. We are a special Police unit without the league knowing. Every city's officer Jenny and her men will be following us and make sure nothing happens when we are in a city. Outside however, where still at risk."

"And when we beat another gym leader?" Niall asked.

"Then the protection falls out for a while and Jenny can arrest him or her."

"One question Master Lucas, if I may." Balboa asked and continued when I nodded.

"Why are they only doing this now? You aren't the first trainer to come by, are you? That other guy we battled, he's also a trainer."

"I asked the same thing." I answered. "Apparently, Oak send them the message that I am the one to take on the league, without telling me, or Gary."

"So Gary is must be pissed once he hears of this." Wally said.

"He will, that's why we won't say anything to him. It turns out that he is a distraction, while I was the one that it's all about. They said that I'm the only one who really knows Lance. Which is strange, since I don't know the guy at all."

"So what should we do?" Lisa asked.

"I suggest we continue grinding." Wally started laughing. "That's pretty much our entire live right now, isn't it?"

"No it isn't. Remember, outside of the cities where all in danger." I said. "And I know grinding is boring, but we need to do it anyway."

"Okay, let's go then." Niall sighed.

 _Route 3_

'SPLURT!'

When I turned around, I saw that my favorite jacket was now slightly red colored.

"Balboa, come on." I said to my Mankey, slightly irritated.

"Sorry Master Lucas." He answered as he was holding the corpse of a Rattata in one of his hands. "This one got irritating."

"I bet he did. It wasn't like he fought for his live or something." I joked, but quickly told the joke to Balboa cause he didn't seem to get it.

"How long do you want us to keep going?" Niall asked.

"I don't know…. I guess as long as you guys are outside of risk." I answered.

"Then we will never be ready." Wally started, he sounded irritated. "We will always be at risk. Our lives will always be at risk. And you know it."

I sighed. "You're right. But that doesn't mean we can make that risk as small as possible."

"And grind our entire lives to eventually die off a lucky hit? I rather fight the real battle and die in those than die by grinding." Wally snapped back.

"I don't want to die." I heard Lisa saying.

"Well, not to be hard, but all of us will likely die." Wally said. He really seemed angry.

"That's enough." I stopped him. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." He flew away and landed in a nearby tree.

"Could it be that he is like this because of Koene?" Niall asked.

"Wait, did you just say Koene?" A Rattata can running out of the high grass.

"Ehm, yeah.." I answered hesitatingly.

"Got it Master Lucas." I saw Balboa running towards the Rattata in the corner of my eye.

"No, Balboa. Wait!" I could just stop him before he had killed yet another Rattata.

Talking about Rattata, the one that was standing in front of me didn't seemed afraid at all.

"So, tell me. This Koene, is he from Route 2?" It asked.

"Yeah, he _was_." Niall said, as he came walking closer.

"What do you mean he _was_?"

"He died. Got killed by a Pidgey."

The Rattata started to cry.

"What's wrong?" I asked as I kneeled down.

"That was my nephew. We were really close" It sat down on the ground and continued crying, as I told her about how he joined our team for a brief moment before getting killed while saving Lisa.

"At least you also killed that idiot called Ryder."

"Idiot? Koene really liked him." I explained to the Rattata.

"Yeah, that's true. But he was an absolute jerk to me. Apparently he liked me but he pushed Koene away every time I came over. Koene didn't even realize what was happening."

"Well, that makes me feel a little bit less guilty that I killed him." Balboa said, surprising everyone that he didn't include the words 'Master Lucas' in his sentence for once.

A scream broke through our conversation, and we all looked towards the place it came from: Wally was still on his branch, but not alone anymore. He had been attacked by a group of angry Spearow. While fighting for his live he managed to kill a Spearow and wound another one, but there where to many.

I didn't hesitated for a minute, and ran towards the three. While I ran I saw an Ember attack fly past me and fry one of the Spearow, but it didn't kill it. Lisa and Balboa where right behind me, although I knew they would be at risk against Spearow.

"Charmander, use another Ember attack." I managed to get out. "Balboa, you use Low Kick. Lisa, you stay back."

The multi-attack worked, two more Spearow where wounded and left the battlefield, but there were still 6 left, and I had only three Pokémon to battle. Well, two, seeing Wally wasn't in a battle state anymore.

"Let me help." The Rattata ran past me and attacked a Spearow straight on, biting in its neck.

A kick from Balboa put an end to the live of another Spearow and Niall's Ember chased two more away. Now there were only two left, and both where dangerously close to Wally.

"Now it's my turn." Lisa crawled past me and jumped up, hitting one of the Spearow in its belly with her stinger. I saw purple poison and red blood drip to the ground.

"You…." The Spearow said angrily, and wanted to kill Lisa with a Peck attack, but Wally seemed to have a little bit power left in him, and managed to beat the Spearow down, making it fly away in anger. The one attacked by the Rattata had already left, making the last Spearow flee as well.

'Whoah, this was a little bit too much." I sighed, as I sat down, around me, my Pokémon sat down as well. Except for Lisa.

"Ehm, Lucas. Is this normal?" She asked. When I looked up I saw she was brightly shining.

"What's happening? I'm scared." She said.

"Don't worry. This is called evolving, you are becoming another species." The Rattata said.

"Really, she is evolving?" I asked. The Rattata nodded.

"Yep, she is."

Lisa started to change shape and grow a little, until the white light was suddenly gone, and Lisa the Weedle was gone as well. Instead, there was a cocoon.

"I…. I feel kinda weird." The cocoon said.

"Everyone does after evolving." The Rattata explained.

"Well, let's see who you are now." I said, as I took my Pokédex.

\- Kakuna. This Pokémon is in a temporary stage while making its body. It is almost completely unable to move on its own. –

"So you are a Kakuna now? That's amazing." I said, and I saw Lisa smiling.

"Now I'm not that weak anymore."

"Don't get your hopes up, you still ain't strong." The Rattata smiled.

"You sure are a positive one, aren't you?" Niall said to Rattata, and it smiled. "Haha, yeah I am."

"We should get going." Wally said, and stood up.

I nodded, and I returned him and Lisa to their Pokéballs. Wally because he was weakened and Lisa because, well, you heard the Pokédex.

"I guess this is goodbye then." I said to Rattata, but it shook its head.

"No way. I like you guys, I'm coming with you."

"Are you sure? Even after we are responsible for Koene's death?"

"From what I have heard, you aren't. Koene decided to save Lisa. And if he gave his life for her, she is worth it. That makes you all worthy travel companions in my eyes." It smiled.

"My name is Hope, Koene's niece." She smiled.

"Well, you know our names." I answered, as I took a Pokéball from my belt and pressed the middle pattern. Hope was sucked into the Pokéball, and it directly clicked.

 _Later, in the Pokémon Centre near Mt. Moon._

"You were right."

Wally turned around and looked at me. "About what?"

We made it through the rest of Route 3 fairly easily and where spending the night in the Pokémon Centre.

"About grinding. We grind too much." I said. "I just want you guys to be as strong as you can possibly be, but I can't overgrind you guys. It went almost wrong today…"

"Hey. This wasn't your fault. I shouldn't have wandered off like that, we are a team and I should act like I'm part of it." Wally said back.

"But I was right about the first part." He winked, and I started to laugh.

"Let's get some sleep, tomorrow will be interesting." I said.


	9. Chapter 8

"Are you all ready?" I asked to my team. They all slowly nodded. Mt. Moon sure is a sight to behold.

Just to be safe I left Lisa in her Pokéball for now, the others can stay outside.

"Let's enter then."

 _Inside Mt. Moon_

The dark aura inside of Mt. Moon was killing the relaxed mood everybody had woken up in this morning. There were a few trainers, but they also didn't seem to be too happy about all of this.

"Hey you!" One of them shouted to me, and I turned around.

"Want to battle?" She asked and I nodded. Sure why not.

Her brown hair was filled with small pieces of sand and her once blue skirt was now grey.

"Bellsprout, you're up first!" She send out the Flower Pokémon.

Bellsprout is grass, I thought to myself, so Wally or Niall will work. I decided to go with Wally on this one.

"Wally, use Gust!" I commanded. One Gust was enough to blow the Bellsprout away.

"Quick, Bellsprout return." The lass said, not risking her Bellsprout to get killed. "Oddish, now it's your turn."

It did surprise me that she was so afraid her Bellsprout would die, but I decided not to say a thing.

"Wally, Gust again." The same happened. One attack knocked the Oddish almost out and the girl returned the Pokémon.

"Why didn't you just let them die?" I asked. "Aren't most trainers that way?"

"Most trainers do that, but I like my Pokémon too much for that." She said. "How about you?"

"I don't want them to die either, although I've had a loss." I sighed as I thought back to Koene, the brave Rattata that had sacrificed himself for Lisa.

"I'm sad to here that, well, see ya!" The girl walked away, probably outside to heal her Pokémon.

"That was fairly easy." Wally said with a smirk.

"Definitely better than the Spearow right?" Hope answered and Wally responded with a laugh. "Sure thing."

"Before I forget, be careful. There are Rocket grunts everywhere." I heard the Lass scream, but she was gone before I could ask more about it.

"I guess we'll have to find out for ourselves then." Niall said as if he could read my mind and I nodded.

We found it out quickly enough: We went down a ladder that was conveniently in the middle of an empty chamber and the room we entered was filled with a group of people who were all wearing the same uniforms.

"What on earth do you think you are doing here kid?" One of the guys said.

"Just passing through. Don't mind me." I said.

"Can't let you pass." The guy said.

"Well, it was worth a shot." I said to Niall, who grinned. "Let's go then."

Just as the guy released a Zubat from its Pokéball Niall ran towards it and used Ember. The Zubat started to catch fire and fell down. Instantly dead.

"What!" The guy screamed and let out his other Pokémon. A Rattata.

"Got this master Lucas." Balboa said as he ran forward as well, jumping up and kicking the Rattata on its back. Long story short, Rattata was also dead.

The Team Rocket member started cursing and stepped away, only to make room for another one.

"You brat. Ekans go!" The Team Rocket member let out his Ekans.

Shit, can't counter this one with its weakness. I need to think.

"Let me handle this." Niall said, seeing my worries. Two Embers where enough to finish off the Ekans.

" Thanks Niall." "No problem."

"This can't be happening." The grunt seemed scared when he let out his last Pokémon, a Zubat.

"Niall, one more."

Just at that moment, a loud screech sounded throughout the cave. I covered my ears and I saw the grunts to the same, as well as my Pokémon.

A giant group of Zubat flew by, they were the ones that caused the noise. I fell down to my knees. Damn I hope they are gone soon.

It took a good 5 minutes before they were all gone. When I opened my eyes. I saw two Zubat: One alive and one dead. I guess the Grunt's Zubat killed one of the wild ones.

I couldn't be more wrong.

The wild Zubat flew towards me.

"You are a trainer right?" It asked.

"Ehm…. Yeah"

"Great, than I want to join your team. I killed that Zubat from the other guy to show you how good I am."

Niall sighed, it didn't look like the Zubat had any idea how the world was rolling, although she did kill the Zubat.

"I will do anything so I can join your team." The Zubat said hopefully. I made a decision.

"Not necessary, you can join anyway." I smiled at here.

"Lucas, team discussion please." Niall said and I saw Wally and Hope nod. "Wait a second." "Sure." The Zubat didn't seem to realize we were about to talk about here.

"What's the problem?" I asked.

Hope started talking. "Look at our team: Wally is a flying type and Lisa the Kakuna is a poison type. What do you need a Zubat for?"

"Yeah, I feel like it is better to use the last place on our team for a Geodude or something." Wally said.

"First, since when do you so much about teams and such?" I asked Wally.

"Hope knows a lot about that stuff, so she informed all of us." He countered.

"Okay. Right now, we can't use Lisa. Until we can again we need the poison typing."

"Why, it isn't that good of a typing you know." Hope said.

"It can be useful. The most important thing is that we don't know how much allies we have. Every ally we find along the way should be welcome." I looked around the group.

Balboa was obviously on my side, as always. Niall nodded slowly and Wally also seemed to understand. Leaving Hope.

"I still don't think we should do it." She said.

Suddenly, I realized something.

"Then why do I need you?" I said with a secret smile.

Hope looked shocked. " What do you mean?"

"I mean, Wally is a normal type so why did I capture you? Besides, normal isn't that good of a type." I started laughing.

"But….. But…" Hope stuttered.

"So we capture a Geodude and this Zubat, and leave Hope?" Niall asked faked serious.

"That does sound good actually." Wally added.

"No!" Hope screamed. "Please don't do that."

"So I can capture the Zubat?" I asked.

"Yes." She sighed.

I couldn't hold it anymore and started laughing, joined by Wally and Niall. Hope looked perplexed and angry. "I'll get back at you."

"So can I join your team?" The Zubat asked curiously.

I nodded and took out a Pokéball, the last one on my belt.

"Yes, finally a team." The Zubat screamed. "My name is Marit by the way."

"Well Marit, my name is Lucas. The Charmander is Niall, the Pidgey is Wally, the Kakuna is Lisa, the Mankey is Balboa and the Rattata is Hope."

"Well, nice to meet you all." Marit said, as she head-butted the middle panel of the Pokéball, which absorbed her quickly.

"Hey kid, you are pretty good." I turned around and saw another Team Rocket member.

"My name is Daryl and I am one of the higher chiefs within Team Rocket. If you want I can let you become a higher member as well."

"No, I'm not taking part on the bad side." I said.

"Come on boy, we are at the winning side. What am I saying, we've already won. You're fighting a lost battle." Daryl laughed.

"I won't join you Daryl." I said angrily.

"You benighted kid." Daryl grows. "Then I have no choice but to eliminate you right here right now."

"Bring it on." I growled back.

"Sandshrew, teach this boy a lesson."

"This one's for you Hope." "Sure thing" Hope ran forward, ready to battle.

"Sandshrew, use Poison Sting."

"Hope, dodge it."

Sandshrew curled up and started shooting purple stingers around the room. Hope ran from left to right trying to dodge them. One of them did hit her and she blasted back.

"Hope, don't give in. Use Quick Attack."

She nodded and ran forward at top speed, there was no way Sandshrew would be able to dodge. It got hit hard and did a step back.

"Use Hyper Fang, finish it off." Hope's front teeth looked like they were twice in size and she bit down on Sandshrew. Her teeth went straight through its belly and blood poured out.

"Not going to lose Sandshrew, now return." Daryl returned Sandshrew and threw another Pokéball. An Ekans came out.

"Hope come back, you did enough. Now Wally, it's your turn. Use Gust."

Ekans was lifted up in the air and twisted around by the gust created by my Pidgey.

"Ekans, use Bite."

The Snake Pokémon tried to get through the wind to bite Wally but it couldn't.

"Wally, now use Quick Attack, multiple times." I commanded.

Wally flew through the winds hitting Ekans from every angle, leaving small brushes.

"Ekans, return." Daryl returned his Pokémon and looked angry at me.

"You might have beaten me this time, but next time I will crush you." He walked off followed by several remaining Team Rocket Grunts.

"That was quite the battle." I heard a whispering voice say. From one of the small caves a teenager with nerdy glasses, a lab coat and a lot of pimples walked in.

"Now if you can leave. I want to examine the fossils I found." He said and gestured that I should leave.

"Fossils, what kind?" I'm very curious so I had to ask.

"None of your businesses." The guy said.

"Wait a minute. You found fossils in Mt. Moon didn't you?" I asked him and he nodded.

"Yes I did, but they are mine." He countered.

"No way I'm letting you get away with those fossils, I want one as well." I didn't really wanted one but irritating him was worth the while.

"You'll have to battle me for it." He said, semi-angry as well as a little frightened.

I sighed. Sure, one more battle.

The first part of the battle went fairly quickly, as Hope defeated both his Grimer and his Koffing with Hyper Fang. His last Pokémon was a Voltorb.

Thinking I had the Pokéball of Balboa I threw it towards the battlefield. Turns out, it was Lisa who was in it.

"No substitutions." The nerd grinned.

"What, you must me kidding me?" I yelled out of frustrations.

"Or you don't get the fossils." He winked.

"Let me battle Lucas. I can do it." Lisa said, but I doubted. I really didn't want her to die.

"Well, since I have no choice, use Harden." Lisa started glowing grey for a second before returning to normal.

From that moment on the battle became really, really boring. I used Harden every turn and because it apparently raises her defense the nerd couldn't do a thing. She didn't seem to take damage at all.

"Do you still want to continue, cause Lisa and I can keep going all day." I winked back at him. He was frustrated but did realize it would be hours before he would get past Lisa.

"Okay. I forfeit, here you go." He tossed me one of the fossils and ran off, followed by his Voltorb which role after him.

The fossil looked like some kind of shellfish. I didn't knew the species so I just wanted to put it in my bag when a bright light blinded me.

I turned around and saw Lisa was once again surrounded by the bright lights.

"Are you really evolving again?" I asked, but Lisa didn't answered. Instead, it looked like the Kakuna cocoon broke open and a bee-like creature came out: Beedrill.

"Wow, this feels strange." Lisa said as she looked at her stingers and apparently only know realized she evolved.

"I am now a Beedrill!" She was so enthusiastic that even the nerd must have heard her.

"Congratulations Lisa." I said as I hugged her. My first Pokémon became fully evolved, I couldn't be prouder.

 _Later_

After endless searching the lights of outside where finally visible. We made it out of Mt. Moon without too many scratches and Lisa evolved. Next up was Cerulean City, which should be interesting.


	10. Chapter 9

The big mountain that is Mt. Moon lies behind us now and we can continue on to the next big stop in our journey: Cerulean City.

Cerulean City is home to Misty, the water type gym leader.

My team was nowhere close to being strong enough to take on Misty. Besides, I had no good counter on my team either. Niall, Balboa, Lisa and Marit where all weak to Misty's Pokémon, so I only had Hope and Wally who could at least try.

"We need to get some kind of counter for Misty." I told the team. Hopefully they could come up with something. To be honest, I was mostly counting on Hope. She really knew a lot about the Pokémon world.

"I am part bug you know, I can help out." Lisa said. At first, that didn't even sounded like a bad idea, but the risks where too big.

"You are also part poison and I heard Misty's Staryu and Starmie are both Psychic types. So even though your bug typing will help out you are still weak to them."

"Only Starmie is actually, Staryu is just a water type." Hope told me.

"Well, that doesn't changes a thing. It still leaves us without a counter."

"Maybe we can find someone around here that wants to help us out." Marit asked. "I'm sure there are some kind-hearted Pokémon here as well."

Marit was definitely the most optimistic team member so far.

"Maybe you are right Marit, let's hope there are some nice Pokémon that can help us." I said. I heard Hope sigh but I decided to ignore it.

"Let's go then!" Marit directly flew off to the nearest forest.

"Wait Marit!" I ran after her, followed by the rest of the gang.

When we reached the forest Marit was nowhere to be found.

"Just great. Who's idea was it to add the happy go lucky bat to our team?" Hope said irritated.

"There she is." Wally said and flew towards the place Marit was also flying. Underneath her was a Sandshrew.

"So you really don't want to join our team." I heard Marit ask.

"Stop asking that and get down here so I can kill you." The Sandshrew reacted angrily.

"But it's a lot of fun on my team and you are welcome. It will all be really joyful." Marit tried again.

"Just shut up." Was the response.

I ran towards them.

"Leave her alone." I said to the Sandshrew, who saw the other five Pokémon behind me and decided to flee.

"Marit, you can't just fly off like that." I said on a firm tone. "We are a team and we should always stick together. We are always at risk and together we have better surviving changes."

Marit looked really sad. "B-but I really thought he would join us. He seemed so nice."

"Everyone knows most Pokémon are bad. How young are you that you don't know that?" Hope asked but I gestured her to stay out of it.

"Listen Marit. Hope is right, most Pokémon out here are dangerous and don't want anything to do with us. There are a few that don't feel the same way, like the members of our team. Those Pokémon will either find us or we have to find them, but we do that together. Okay?"

"O-okay."

I smiled.

"Master Lucas."

"Yes Balboa, what's wrong?" I turned around and saw a worried look on the faces of my Pokémon.

"About that staying together part, Niall just ran off." Wally said.

"What!" I had no idea where Niall could have gone. Why would he go off by himself?

"He said he had to do something and just ran off." Lisa further explained.

"Hey, stop that!" I head a familiar voice say and I ran towards the sound, once again followed by my team. Man, I really need to lecture my team better otherwise I'll keep chasing after them.

"Isn't that the nice guy that gave us the fossil?" Marit asked. It was indeed the nerd that lost the battle against me and, reluctantly, gave me the fossil.

"Hey you. Stop that Charmander of yours." The nerd said. At least I found Niall. He was busy burning down the Nerd's Voltorb.

"Niall, what on earth are you doing?"

He turned around. "This guy had it coming. He was planning to kill Lisa, now I kill his Voltorb."

That actually did sound fair, and it wasn't like the Voltorb was such a sweet Pokémon.

"Don't talk to it, stop it." The nerd said hysterically.

"Sorry man. Niall is right." He looked confused, but directly shocked when he saw the remaining's of his Voltorb, all burned down.

"B-but. It had the lowest kill streak of my entire team." He stuttered.

Niall looked triumphant and his smile widened when he started to glow all white.

I realized I was looking at the third evolution within a few days.

Before I could react the white light was gone and Niall had turned into a Charmeleon.

"Congratulations Niall." I said dumbfounded. Man, my first Pokémon had evolved. I suddenly looked back at the guy I was a short week ago. When I was standing in Oak's lab, demonstrating against the whole 'going on a journey'- thing. Now I was enjoying it more than anything.

"Thanks Lucas. Hope told me I should be getting closer to evolving so when I saw the nerd with his Voltorb I just had to go for it." Niall the Charmeleon said.

"That explains it." I answered. I looked around and saw my team was still complete.

"Now how about we go check out Cerulean City?" I asked the team and they all nodded.

Cerulean City looked like a decent city, nothing that really differs it from other cities. There were a lot of lakes north of the city. And it had a gym. Nothing could go wrong if you'd ask me. Of course, I am never right.


	11. Chapter 10

"If it isn't my boy Lucas"

Gary's words shook me out of my daydream. He walked towards me and waved. He looked more serious though.

"Hi man, how are you doing?" I asked him.

"Good, I've been training my Pokémon." He said. No jokes, just serious. Something was wrong.

"Are you okay Gary?" I decided to ask, he simply nodded.

"How about a battle?"

"Ehm, yeah sure."

"Great, Pidgeotto, go!"

His Pidgeotto, which we had named Viril, came out. Strangely Gary hadn't used the nickname.

"Wally, it's up to you." Wally nodded and flew in.

"You didn't evolve your Pidgey yet?" Gary laughed. This kept getting stranger.

"He's isn't at the right level." I answered, which made Gary smirk.

"Pidgeotto, use Gust!" Viril flew up and flapped his wings hard.

"Wally, counter that with Quick Attack!"

As Wally flew as fast as he could I saw Viril releasing the Gust attack, which made it harder for Wally to continue flying. He eventually gave up and flew back.

"Another Gust!" I heard Gary order.

"Fly higher." Wally nodded and flew up.

"Follow him." Gary said without any emotion. Viril quit using Gust and flew after Wally. Viril was faster and was gaining on Wally but I had a small plan on how to defeat the Pidgeotto.

"Wally, turn around and use Quick Attack."

In the air I could see the smaller bird hitting the larger bird, making the last one fall down.

Seconds later Viril came falling down into the ground, the Quick Attack had completely destroyed his balance and the Pidgeotto could do nothing to prevent him from falling.

This time Viril didn't need to act like he lost, he had barely enough power to get up.

"Return. Rattata, your turn."

"Wally you did good, now Hope show him how it's done. Quick Attack!"

Once again speed beat sheer power and within a few minutes Gary's Rattata had fallen down in defeat. Hope looked up at me, begging for another battle.

"Abra, go." Gary didn't seem to care much for the battle, which bothered me.

"Okay Hope, you can try this one." Hope nodded in excitement and ran forward.

"Let's see if you can beat me." I smirked at Gary, but he didn't react.

"Abra, Teleport away." He said, but apparently Abra had no place to go and stayed in the battle.

Hope was already ready to get herself a victory .

"Hope, use Hyper Fang!" Hope's front teeth are shining brightly and even seem to have grown a bit as she bites down on Abra. The power was so big that even Gary, who had been distant about this entire battle so far, was looking terrified.

Luckily Hope didn't kill Abra so Gary could return it to its Pokéball.

"Squirtle, you are up."

This was worrying me even more, Gary and Blast where close from the moment they met, why would he call him by his species name?

"Niall, you want to battle your friend?" Niall looked at me and nodded, even though he was at a type disadvantage he would always battle Blast and this way we might figure out what was wrong.

"Yo Blast, what's up?" Niall asked.

"I don't really know man, some weird dude talked to Gary and now he's completely emotionless during battling." Blast answered.

"Squirtle, use Bubble."

"O wait." Blast used Bubble, which Niall shook off quickly, and continued talking.

"Viril, Nike and Shazam all don't know what's happening either, but they seem to don't really mind. Of course, they don't know Gary for as long as I do."

"Wait a minute, who are Nike and Shazam?" Niall asked the question that was burning on my lips as well.

"Nike is his Rattata which joined our team before we battled Brock. He was part of some Rattata group which he left. Shazam is his Abra which accidentally teleported himself to the place Gary was in and Gary captured it." Blast smiled when he thought back on how excited he and Gary where when they captured Shazam the Abra.

"But now, he is completely different." Blast spoke out loud again.

"Squirtle, another Bubble."

Another Bubble and another easy counter further, I looked at Niall who nodded.

"Look, I'd love to talk, but I'm afraid Gary won't allow you to barely do damage much longer, so I'll have to Scratch you so it seems where really battling."

Blast started to laugh.

"You think Scratch will be enough to stop me?" He got the 'you know what I mean' look from Niall. "Fine, I'll pretend I'm fainted."

Niall scratched Blast over its face and Blast jumped one meter back, groaning hard as if he was in pain and then silenced.

"What a drama queen." Niall sighed.

"Damnit, well. I'll be on my way." Gary returned Blast to his Pokéball and walked away, without saying anything.

"What are we going to do next?" Hope asked. She didn't knew Gary at all so she just saw an arrogant rival that doesn't care about his Pokémon.

"I guess got to Cerulean."

"Oh, you should check out Nugget Bridge." Gary yelled casually before he wasn't visible anymore.

"Well, maybe we can find some answers there." Wally said. Unlike Hope, Wally did know about the friendship between me and Gary and the friendship between Niall and Blast.

"You're right, let's go." I answered and we started walking towards the place Gary came from.

When we arrived at what we thought was the place Gary came from, we saw a big, golden bridge that was crossing a calm river. 5 people were standing on the bridge and at the end was a sixth person.

"This is odd." Lisa said and the other nodded in agreement.

"Pardon me, but what is this?" I asked a younger boy with a big net.

"I present to you Nugget Bridge!" He screamed. "Here are five trainers that will challenge you to a battle and you will have to beat all of them!"

"Ignoring the fact that you made me halve-deaf, why should I want to challenge you? I can just walk over.

"Because you are not allowed over unless you beat us!" I swear to this day my ear still hurts from this guy's yelling.

I suddenly heard Niall growl behind me: "Let's go then."

"It are five trainers, you sure?"

"I want to know what happened to Gary and how we can end it. Blast is my friend you know." Niall's eyes were filled with emotion.

"I'm gonna tell you something I never told anyone: Back at Oak's I only had Blast. The Bulbasaur wasn't directly friendly towards me so Blast and I where always together. Now I will do whatever it takes to get him safe again. That Gary, that wasn't the Gary we saw in Pallet or in Viridian. This Gary will get Blast killed."

"Okay then, let's fight them."

"Go Caterpie and Weedle!" The boy send out his two Bug type Pokémon. Within a second Niall had burned them. Same for the Metapod and Kakuna that the boy send in next.

"Damn! I lost! You can move on to the second trainer!"

While rubbing my ear we went on.

The second trainer was a younger girl with a Pidgey, an Oddish and a Bellsprout. Easy to say, Wally swept through them easily.

Then there was a guy that thought he was a challenge, at least he said that a thousand times before we even started battling.

"Go Sandshrew, you are up."

"Lucas, we don't really have good coverage for this so can I please battle again?" Hope asked. It hit me that the only time she was polite towards me was when she wanted to battle.

"Ehm, I wanted to give this one to Balboa instead, if you don't mind."

"No, of course not." She backed away, not amused.

"Balboa, get him."

"Or her." I heard Hope cough.

"I'm ready master Lucas." Balboa added and stormed off towards the Sandshrew.

"Use Karate Chop." With one hit the Sandshrew was blasted back but ready to continue.

"Use Scratch." Sandshrew ran forward and scratched Balboa. And then something strange happened.

Balboa started to laugh. Really hard.

Every one of us looked up surprised, even Hope, while Balboa kept laughing.

"What's it doing?" the boy asked.

"I have no clue." I answered in all honesty. "Balboa, what's up?"

"Ha ha ha" He tried to stop laughing and finally managed to. "It is funny master Lucas, you made us train so hard and this is what we have to fight. With all respect to you but this is just laughable."

My other Pokémon all started to laugh as well and I couldn't resist a grin.

"Wait, what is he saying?"

"That you are laughably weak." I really smiled now. My overprotection had come to a point where even Balboa made fun of it, the Pokémon that followed my every command without question. I really needed to loosen up a bit.

"Okay Balboa, try to control your laughter and take that thing out."

"I will Master Lucas." He still grinned but kicked the Sandshrew out of the match."

"How…." The boy didn't really managed to follow the battle and now he saw his Sandshrew laying knocked out in front of him.

"I'm out of here." He ran off the bridge as quick as he could.

"Pussy." Another girl said, she was my next challenge. Well, challenge… Let's just say she was my next boxing ball.

"So you are my challenger then?" She asked quite arrogant.

"I guess I can do it before my manicure."

"I got this." Wally and Hope said together, looked at each other and eventually Wally gave in so Hope could have the battle.

She send out a Nidoran, a male, which Hope took down with two Quick Attacks, same with her other Nidoran, this one was female.

"What, how is this possible?"

"Time for your manicure." Hope laughed. "All alone cause your Pokémon won't be joining you."

"Not so mean Hope." I said.

"What?" the girl asked.

"Nothing, I was talking to my Rattata." I answered.

"Yeah sure, as if you could." She walked off the bridge as well.

"Never mind her, seeing her weak Pokémon and her bad coordination they probably stopped talking to her a long time ago." Niall said and I nodded, not many trainers could talk to their Pokémon after all.

The last guy was a pushover all together. He only had a Mankey. Even though the Mankey tried to put up a fight it's trainer commanded it to use Leer, all the time. Eventually the fighting-type Pokémon was fed up with using Leer and it went for a Karate Chop on Wally. It didn't help much and seconds later it bit the dust.

"So, you made it through my Nugget Bridge." The sixth guy said.

"Yeah I guess I did."

"Well, here is a Nugget as your reward." He took a big, golden nugget out of his bag and gave it to me.

"Now we're talking, how do you feel about joining Team Rocket?" He said with a creepy grin.

"You are kidding, right?" I asked.

"Nope." He pulled of his jacket and revealed a gray sweater with a giant 'R' written on it. "I'm bloody serious, are you in?"

"No, not for all the money in the world." I said.

"Too bad, the other guy that just came here did accept. Well I guess I'll have to battle and convince you then."

"Gary…." I mumbled. Suddenly I realized what had happened, and I saw it all in front of me:

Gary easily swept through the Nugget Bridge, just as we did and went up to this guy, who told him to become part of Team Rocket, which he apparently accepted. But why?

"Go Ekans!"

"Wally."

"Wait Lucas, can I try? Please?" Marit asked.

I looked at Wally who sighed and nodded.

"Okay sure, you can try."

"Ekans, use Bite."

"Okay Marit, dodge it."

Marit flew high but Ekans was faster and bit her. Drips of blood fell down to the ground and I almost started to panic, but she was still flying.

"Use Bite as well."

She was now flying towards the Ekans and managed to bite it, again small drops of blood where dripping, this time it was Ekans' blood.

"Now Ekans, use Wrap." The Rocket Grunt commanded.

It's tail went around Marit's body and he started squeezing. She had trouble breathing.

"Marit, return." I tried to get her back into her Pokéball but the machine refused it.

The grunt started to laugh as she was choking.

"I-I'm sorry. I f-f-f-failed you." Marit struggled but managed to say, after which she passed out.

"Let her go!" I screamed and about to run forward and punch the guy, Wally was faster and used Quick Attack on the Ekans, slicing through its skin and leaving it dead behind. In the process Wally started to glow all white but I didn't notice, I ran towards Marit.

She was all purple and didn't breath.

"Marit!" I screamed. "We need to get her to a Pokémon center, quick."

"Wait, our battle isn't over." The grunt said. "Or you could join Team Rocket and I would let you go, although you care to much for your Pokémon to join. And you give them names? That's never good."

He had released a Zubat and he was about to command it as Wally, which was now a Pidgeotto, struck the Zubat with a Gust attack and made it fall to the ground, where it was picked up and smashed back into the ground till it didn't move anymore.

"Well, that was a pitty. Still don't want to join?" He asked.

"No way. This" And I pointed towards Marit. "This is the reason why I will never join you. These Pokémon are my friends and I will never give them up."

"You…" The grunt mumbled. "You are the guy that wrecked our Mt. Moon business. I'll tell our boss to keep an eye on you." And with that, he ran away.

"Marit, please wake up." I constantly said that as I ran towards the Pokémon centre, where Nurse Joy took care of her. I had to stay in the waiting room.

"By the way, I forgot to tell you back then, but thanks for everything you did after Marit choked. And congrats with evolving." I tried to say with a smile.

"Don't mention it." Wally said. "Let's hope Marit is okay."

But she wasn't. two hours we waited before Nurse Joy came in and told us Marit had passed away. The cute, innocent Zubat had no live in her anymore. I felt a tear coming down and smashed my hand into the table.

After that I walked outside, just to take a deep breath.

"Marit, you don't need to be sorry that you failed me, because you didn't All you did was your best. I shouldn't have let you battled yet, you needed more training. I failed you…"


	12. Chapter 11

" I guess it's even more training from now on then." Wally said while sighing. He and the others had just caught me outside of the Pokémon centre, where I had sat all night.

"Yeah, but first you need to get some sleep." Lisa said.

"Yeah, you pulled an all-nighter without doing anything. Impressive." Hope said.

I knew what they were trying to do, they tried to cheer me up. Sadly it didn't work.

"I don't know guys. You are all pretty strong, Marit was just under leveled and she needed more training. And I blew it by letting her battle directly."

"She did want to battle Master Lucas." Balboa tried.

"The monkey is right, she wanted it." That was Hope.

"Yeah, but she wanted everything. She flew away to talk a Sandshrew into joining our team and that also almost got her killed. I was responsible."

I felt a claw on my arm and looked into Niall's eyes.

"I know this is rough, but I can also tell you it will happen again. Any of us could die at any minute, you know that."

I nodded.

"But you can't stay in this grief mode. You grieved all night and I think we all did in our own way, but we need to get going. That Team Rocket boss probably already knows we are out here and Lance probably already knows we are getting closer since Brock got arrested."

"Yeah, and Misty will be soon arrested as well."

I heard a female voice say. Another Officer Jenny walked up to us. It was well known they all looked "

"I do have to inform you she is north of Cerulean, out of the gym. You will need to go up there and convince her to battle you in the gym. Only that way the security will be down."

"You know, I really want to know it now. Why is the security down exactly?" Hope asked.

Since Jenny couldn't hear Hope I asked it for her and Jenny looked surprised.

"Didn't Pewter Jenny told you?" When I shook my head she continued.

"Okay, Lance likes his gym leaders strong. Just as any of his henchman they can't lose. If they do, Lance manually disables the security around their gym so they can be arrested. He will replace them but that takes time. We hope to have taken him down by that. But even if he does replace one or two, what matters most is that you beat Lance in a battle."

"So he will put the security down of the Elite 4 too if they lose?"

Jenny looked at me and her eyes became cold.

"No, every Elite 4 member has a bracelet. When they lose, they get shocked that strong that they die.

…..

 _Route 25_

"So now we are looking for this Misty." Niall started. "What does she look like?"

"I have no clue, but I think she has red hair." I said.

"Well, she should be around here somewhere." Niall added. The Charmeleon scratched his head with his claw. "Auw"

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I guess I'm still not really used having these claws." Niall said with a smile.

I realized that being out here was good for all of us. Sure, death was to be expected but it still stung. Wally seemed worse of all.

"Hey Wally, are you okay?" Hope asked. Apparantly she saw it too.

"Yeah I'm fine." He quickly answered, but everyone could see he was lying.

"You know you can talk to us about whatever's wrong, right?" I said.

"Yeah I know…" Wally said. "Let's get going, shall we?"

I nodded. "Sure."

Near the lake we saw a red-haired girl sit, singing together with what seemed a Starmie.

"Misty?" I asked.

"Yes, that's me." She responded. "Who are you?"

"I am Lucas, here to challenge you to a gym battle."

"Ah, that sounds lovely. Let us begin than." Misty replied.

I looked at Niall.

"Don't you think she should be getting upset or angry?" Hope asked.

"Yeah, Brock didn't seem to be that happy that he was challenged." Lisa said.

"If she loses she gets arrested, she shouldn't be happy at all." Niall explained.

"Oh, but she isn't Misty." A Caterpie came crawling out of the bushes. "She is only her stand-in, here to fool trainers like you. She even has some fake Cascade badges to make sure the real Misty won't be caught."

"You little…" The fake Misty started, but realized in what a bad position she was. Before anyone could react she had run away.

"Well, that's unfortunate." I said. "But thanks for the warning."

"No problem. My name is Shira by the way." Shira said.

"Nice to meet you, my name is Lucas."

"Lucas, group consultation please." Hope said.

"Sorry Shira, could you hang on. I'm not the boss in this team, you see?" I tried, which made Shira laugh.

"What's wrong now Hope?" I now asked.

"Are you sure we want her on the team? We already have a bug type." Hope said.

"This again? We've had this discussion before when Marit wanted to join us."

"And how did that turn out?" Hope said cynical.

"You shut up about Marit." Wally said angrily. "Nothing was wrong with her, I failed saving her, otherwise she would still be here."

Everyone looked shocked at the Pidgeotto.

"Wally, it isn't your fault. I shouldn't have switched her into that battle." I said to calm him down.

"Yeah, but when things got ugly I couldn't react fast enough to save her. We are a team and I couldn't live up to that." Wally said, a tear fell from his eye.

"Are you guys okay?" Shira asked. "Oh my, you are crying. What's wrong?"

"It's just…. We recently lost a team member." Niall explained.

"Oh, my condolences. I know there is already a bug type on your team, but I could join you if you would like. If I remember correct my mother told me I could learn Confusion once I evolved into a Butterfree."

"Would you want to join us? Even with the risk of dying?" I asked.

"Sure. It's either dying on a team doing something useful or dying out here by the hands of a grinding trainer." Shira explained.

"Or not dying at all." Hope added.

"We'll have to see about that." Shira responded.

"So. Shira, welcome to the team." I said happily. "Right guys?"

"Yes, welcome." Niall said.

"Glad you're here." Lisa added.

"If Master Lucas likes you, so do I." Balboa saluted.

"What's wrong with that one?" Shira whispered.

"You don't want to know." I responded with a small smile.

I took a Pokéball from my belt and laid it on the ground. Shira crawled towards it and pushed the middle button, marking her capture.

"Wally, can we talk in private please?" I asked my Pidgeotto.

"Sure, but there's nothing wrong." Wally added.

"Yes there is. You take the blame for the death of Marit and so do I. But if you think about it, it all really is the fault of the Grunt. His fault and the fault of his Ekans. They killed Marit."

"Yeah, but I wasn't fast enough. I failed the team." Wally said despressed.

"You are the fastest on the team, if you couldn't save her, nobody could." I responded.

"So we just forget about her?"

"No, of course we won't. Marit, Koene, they will always be in our hearts. We will never forget them and carry their legacy into the Hall of Fame."

"After we kicked Lance's ass." Niall said as he walked in.

"Indeed, after we kicked Lance's ass." I copied.

"Okay, thanks you guys." Wally said, said but also happy.

"That's why we are a team." I said while petting Wally on his head.


	13. Chapter 12

"The love place?" I asked out loud as I read the sign.

"The what now?" Niall asked.

"The love place, that's what this lake and all surroundings are called." I explained.

"Well, that sounds interesting." Lisa said.

Two people came walking towards us.

"Could you please keep your noise down, we are trying to have a nice moment here you know?" the guy said.

"I'm sorry. We will be more quiet." I responded.

"Also, could you return your Pokémon to your Pokéballs please. They smell." The female added.

"Like you smell that good." Hope snapped.

"Hope!" I called Hope to order.

"Hope for what?" The girl asked "By the way now you are screaming, that is way too loud.."

"Hope is the name of my Rattata, she said something she shouldn't have said." I said, with an angry look at Hope.

"What? It's true." Hope said brutally.

"You gave you're Pokémon names and you pretend to speak to them, that is so….." the girl said, but she couldn't find the word she apparently was looking for.

"Ordinary." The guy filled her in while smiling at her.

"Yeah indeed, ordinary." The girl said with a smile back.

"Well, I think we have waisted enough time with these fools. Let's move on okay?" Hope said.

I nodded.

"Talking to your Rattata again? What is it saying?" The girl said sarcastic.

I smiled meanly. "She said you smell worse than all Rattata's together."

"What! How dare you?" The girl said insulted. "Chad, make them stop."

"You need to apologies to my lady, right now." Chad said.

I decided to just walk away, just as my team I had enough of those two.

"Come back here! Apologize!" Chad screamed, while his girlfriend seemed to be crying.

"Never in a million years." Niall said while following us.

"That wasn't very nice." Lisa said.

"Maybe not, but they had it coming." Niall said.

"Yeah, I agree." Wally said. He had gone back to his former self and I was happy to see he was more playful again.

"Hey!" we heard a voice.

"W-what was that?" Shira asked. Shire was probably the biggest surprise yet: When we first met her she seemed outgoing, but she turned more and more the other way around. The barely spoke anymore and when she did it was more stuttering than talking.

"Don't know. Let's find out." I said and the others nodded.

We followed a path from where the sound had come from.

"Hello?" The voice again.

"It doesn't sound like were getting closer." Niall said.

We kept walking while the voice occasionally let himself hear.

Finally, we reached a small house and something pink went in.

"I think we made it." I said. "But since we don't know if it is a trap, I want to make sure no-one will be hurt."

Everyone nodded.

"Niall and Balboa in front, Wally and Lisa cover my back. Hope and Shira with me." We had figured out a defense strategy that should keep us safe from attackers. Niall and Balboa where my two physically strongest members who could keep off attackers. Wally and Lisa could both fly so they were able to be agile even if we were surrounded, that would help it the attackers came from behind as well. Shira and Hope would be back up for either one of the two fronts.

Niall slowly opened the door, claws in position. Balboa was focused as well. Both let down their guard directly when they entered.

"What is it?" I asked.

"A Clefairy sitting in an empty room." Niall laughed.

"Should we fight it master Lucas?" Balbo asked.

I shook my head and walked in. Shira seemed nervous, Hope the opposite.

"Wally, Lisa, we don't know exactly where we are so fly around the house so we aren't ambushed." Both nodded and flew away. I probably already had quite some enemies out there so safety was my main priority.

"Hi there." The Clefairy said.

"Hello, can we help you?" I asked.

"Yes, I am a Pokémon. No, wait, I'm a human!" The Clefairy said.

"Which one of the two?" Niall asked confused.

"Well, it seems to me that he is a Pokémon." Hope said.

"No, I am a human." The Clefairy explained. "My name is Bill and I accidentally turned myself into a Pokémon with this machine." The Clefairy pointed towards the machine he was mentioning. It had two large cabins which were connected due to a steel pipe.

"I was experimenting and something went wrong, if you could please turn me back to a human, I would be forever grateful."

"Sure, whatever you say." I answered.

"That is good. Then I will step into the machine. Go to my computer and start Cell Separation System." Bill said. He walked into one of the machines.

I did what he said and the machine started shaking. After a short while both doors opened: The Clefairy left the right door while a middle-aged man with brown hair exited the other.

"Okay, this is better. Thanks a lot pal!" He said happily.

"No problem." I said with a smile.

"Now let me see, you deserve a proper 'thank you', I was really afraid I would be stuck in Clefairy forever." Bill seemed to be searching for something in his pockets. His tongue came out as he was really focused.

"Ah, here it is. This is a ticket for the S.S. Anne. It is a large cruise ship that is currently docked in Vermillion City. They wanted to me to join but I don't like that fancy stuff and now I am a human again I have a lot of work to do. You could go in my place?"

"Well, that could be interesting, but…" I started.

"I heard there would be a lot of trainers aboard as well." Bill said with a smile.

"That makes things more interesting." I said.

"Beating trainers gives us money…." Wally started.

"And with money we can buy food." Hope continued.

"And damn, I love food." Niall said with a big smile.

"This is amazing!" Bill screamed out. "I can understand your Pokémon."

"So what? I can understand them as well and believe me, it isn't all that amazing." I answered neutral.

"Yeah, it is logical that you can understand them, you are their trainer and, from the likes of it, a good one. I, as an outsider, would never be able to understand Pokémon. But now I do." He had a big smile.

"Well, glad you can understand them. We should be on our way before you start to regret it." I said.

Bill started to laugh. "Well, good luck with your journey than."

When we walked back into Cerulean City we saw the fake Misty hurry into the gym.

"Hey you!" I said, but when she saw me she sped up even more.

I looked at my team. "How about a gym battle?"

"Well, taking out Misty would be a lot of fun, that's for sure." Hope said.

"Yeah, but how?" Niall answered. "I can't beat Water types, Lisa doesn't stand a chance against them since she is a poison type. Same goes for Balboa"

"I could battle them." Wally raised.

"Yeah that's true, but that would be one. I don't see Hope or Shira fight that Starmie, no offense." Niall said.

"I can beat that thing with my eyes closed." Hope said angry.

"You'd die with your eyes closed first." Niall snapped back.

"Guys, shut it. Niall might be right, we might need some reinforcements. There is a route south of here which we could go to. Let's explore that first and we might find some extra help." I responded.

"Sure, but the next guy or girl who undermines my power will witness it." Hope said, still angry.

Niall almost couldn't hold his laugh, I'm really glad he could.

There was just one problem, we had no idea how to get to the route south. The border between the city and the route we wanted to go was covered with a hedge and it didn't seem polite to climb over it.

This led us to wander through the city, finding a way to get where we wanted to be. On our way we saw a man sitting on his knees before what we thought was his house.

"Sir, are you alright?"

"T-they robbed me." The guy stuttered.

"Who did?" I asked, although I had a wild guess.

"That group of thieves. How do they call themselves? Team Rocket? Yeah, that must be it…"

Once again Team Rocket, those guys really couldn't stop.

It slowly started to rain but the man didn't seem to notice. I thought it wouldn't be good for someone to sit on the ground in the rain, so I wanted to help him out.

"Come on, let's get you inside first." I said as I helped him up. "You'll get sick if you stay out here."

Together we walked inside. His house was a total mess inside, there where prints of mud on the ground and paintings had been smashed off the walls.

"Thank you young sir." The guy said as he sat down on of the chairs that was still useful.

"I'm sorry they did this to you." I said.

"You can't help it."

Suddenly two police officers stormed in, one of them being Officer Jenny.

"Lucas, what are you doing here?" She asked. I quickly explained the situation to her and she nodded. "It's good you brought him in."

She walked over to the man and kneeled down.

"Sir, couldn't you describe the man who robbed you?"

"He was a Team Rocket member, that's all I know." He answered. "He fled through the front door."

Jenny and the other officer looked at each other and ran away, probably trying to still find the robber.

"It seems things are taken care off, we should be on our way." I said a little bit awkward cause I wasn't sure how to react.

"He didn't go out the front." The man said. "He went out the back."

"What?" I asked. "But you…." I started, but the man silenced me.

"Yeah I know what I said, but I don't trust the cops. I do trust you, the robber went out the back."

"Ehm okay, we will go after him then." I looked at my team and they all nodded.

We went out the back door and into the guys garden. Following that garden we saw a man, hiding behind a tree.

"That was easy." I said, loud on purpose so he would hear us.

"What?" He stepped away from his tree. "Oh, it's you." He said with a grin.

I felt like I sank through the ground: This was the guy that was responsible for Marit's death.


	14. Chapter 13

My fist collapsed with the grunt's face within seconds. The guy fell to the ground.

"What the hell man?" The grunt screamed.

"Shut up." I simply said. I heard a screech and something quickly flew past me and attacked the grunt. Wally started pecking the grunt while the latter screamed in agony.

I heard a noise behind me. I turned around and Officer Jenny walked into the small garden, holding the grunt at gunpoint.

"That old bastard." She whispered.

"Wally." I said. "Get off the guy." My Pidgeotto obeyed, with clear reluctance. Jenny quickened to get the grunt and arrest him.

"I am sorry you got involved into this. This wasn't a robbery, it was a scene. You have become a dangerous person and Team Rocket knows that, this grunt was here to take you out quickly and quietly but you surprised him."

We followed Jenny back into the house, where the owner was also arrested.

"And this, is the guy that lured you into their trap." Jenny pointed out. "Many people hate Pokémon so they don't want someone like you to win. You got Lance to thank for that."

I nodded disappointed.

"I don't get it. What's not to like about us?" Hope later asked, as we entered the Route called Route 5.

"I know what's not to like about you.." Niall laughed. Wally joined in the laughter.

"Try me." Hope said, showing her two strong teeth.

Niall faked a face filled with horror.

Suddenly vines shot from the grass, wrapping around Hope and pulling her away.

"What the…" I started, but the vines returned, this time they took Shira.

They were so fast we couldn't even respond to them. Another set took Balboa into the tall grass and we were still trying to understand where Hope and Shira had gone.

I took a few steps back from the tall grass, so did Niall. The vines returned and wrapped themselves around Niall and tried to pull, but Niall was too heavy.

"Too bad sucker." Niall grinned, and grabbed both vines and pulled, resulting in a Bellsprout flying out of the grass, followed by Hope, Balboa and Shira who came walking out of the grass as well.

"So this is the pranker?" Niall asked as a rhetorical question.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"More importantly, why did it take us?" Hope quickly added.

The Bellsprout stood up and looked at us. He looked at all our faces one by one….. and started running away like crazy.

"Wally, stop him." The Flying type quickly flew after him and managed to stop the Flower Pokémon in its tracks.

"Leave me be." It screamed.

"Why did you take us?" Hope was the second one to reach the scene and put her teeth near its neck.

"I just want to be alone. I need to be alone." It said. "I hate it when people or Pokémon come close to me."

"But we were just walking over the path." I responded.

"Maybe, but you were still too close. I wanted to take a few of your Pokémon so you would leave." The Bellsprout explained. "That is what all the other trainers do."

"Yeah, but I'm not like all other trainers. I care about my Pokémon and I don't want them taken." I snapped back.

"Really impressive, now get this rat off of me so I can continue with my alone-time."

"Hope, let it go." I ordered, too which Hope obliged.

"Well thank you. I will be on my way then." The Bellsprout said. "And besides, I'm no 'it', I'm Bill."

We all just ignored him and continued walking until we all felt like we should go back and fight Misty.

"Too bad there's no good and strong Grass type over here." Lisa sighed.

"Master, maybe you can capture the Bellsprout?" Balboa raised.

"Gods no." Hope blurred out. "That wimp? You won't win a battle with it."

Wally seemed to agree. "He won't battle because you can't battle by yourself." The others started to laugh.

Within a few moments Cerulean City appeared again through the woods. I felt like I had a lump in my throat. I was terrified for the battle with Misty.

"Are you guys sure you can handle this?" I asked them once again.

"Don't worry, we will be fine." Wally said. He knew as well as I did that he would have to do most of the work. He didn't seem to mind though.

"Need a hand?" We turned around and saw Bill the Bellsprout standing in the middle of the road.

"You probably have us mistaken with air." Hope vulgarly said.

"I'm sorry about all that." Bill explained in shame. "I tend to get carried away, but when I feel lonely I want to be even more alone."

"That makes zero sense." Niall whispered.

"As a sign of my truest apology I will fight for you against Misty." Bill offered. "But I will not be captured."

"Ehh, sure. Thanks." I responded. I could already hear Hope sigh.

As we entered the Cerulean Gym I heard the noise of people swimming. As I looked around I saw it the entire gym consisted off pools. Thinking back it wasn't such a surprise as the gym's main focus was water.

Two trainers stood in the way between Misty and me.

"You will have to battle us first."

"No he won't." I heard a female voice said. "I want all the deaths for myself."

"Yes miss Misty." Both stepped aside. The gym leader was a younger girl, not much older than myself.

"You must be the guy that has all the Rocket's peeing their pants." Misty said. "And worse, you got Brock arrested."

I simply nodded.

"You are pretty cute. How about you drop those Pokéballs and we go grab some dinner?" She asked seductively. I had no idea what I heard. Up to this point I had never had a girlfriend so it was a tempting offer.

Niall sighed and slashed my leg.

"Auw!" I screamed in agony. It didn't bleed but it did hurt. "Where was that for?"

"For even considering dropping us." Niall said, quasi-angry.

"I didn't…. I just tried to, you know, imagine how it would be to have a girlfriend."

I wanted to sink into the ground at that point. Everyone, and really everyone, started to laugh: Even Balboa and Shira had smiles on their faces. Misty had trouble breathing.

"O god.." Hope gasped for air as well.

"Dammit, I decline, let's battle." I said angrily.

"Wait…. A minute….." Misty still couldn't stop laughing. Apparently never having a girlfriend at age 18 is somehow funny.

"Okay, I'm ready. You don't know what you just declined boy. Get ready to face an all-out offensive Water attack!" She released her Staryu from a blue kind of Pokéball.

"Bill?" I asked, and the Flower Pokémon nodded and stepped forward.

"What a nerd." I heard one of the two swimmers behind me say.

"Bill, use ehh." I had honestly no idea what kind of attacks Bill could use.

"Let me handle this, no need for orders." Bill said and jumped forward. He released his two vines again and wrapped them around Staryu.

"Staryu, use Water Pulse." A ball of water started forming around Staryu's core and the Star Pokémon shot it at Bill. Even though the latter was hit it didn't seem to do that much.

Bill lifted the Staryu up and smacked it onto the ground, multiple times. The vines disappeared and instead he summoned some kind of powder. It stuck to Staryu until the Water type fell sound asleep.

"Staryu, get up!" Misty commanded.

"Not happening." Bill said with a grin as his vines reappeared and started slapping the Staryu. One slap in particular was that strong that Staryu was blasted away, flew through the air and crashed into the ground a few meters next to the pool.

It's core started flicker, indicating it was defeated.

"Crap. Starmie, beat them, beat them all!" A larger version of Staryu was released. Instead of Staryu's brown color, this one had a purple coloration.

"Great job Bill." I cheered. The Flower Pokémon winked and turned back around, now facing Starmie.

"Starmie, use Rapid Spin!" Misty ordered. The Purple Pokémon started to spin around.

Bill jumped into the water. Seconds later, two vines appeared from the water and found their way towards Starmie, but the latter cut through them.

"Use Harden." Starmie became grey for a few seconds before turning back to normal, now looking stronger. It jumped into the water to find Bill.

"You know what to do." Misty said with a grin.

Near seconds past and Bill blasted out of the water. He landed on his feet on one of the small islands that were made in the pool.

"Can you keep going?" I asked him.

"As long as I'm not dead I will keep battling." He responded. He once again released two vines and shot them into the water. When they surfaced again they had Starmie wrapped up. Bill threw the Star Pokémon against the wall.

"Okay Starmie, how about Recover?"

Starmie seemed to regain all of its health and stepped up.

Bill released the Sleep Powder from earlier again and as soon as it hit Starmie, the latter was sound asleep.

"Good." Bill smirked and grabbed Starmie with his vines. He smashed it from one wall into another.

Misty sighed, there was nothing she could do as long as her Starmie was asleep.

All of a sudden Starmie woke up again. It created a ball of water and shot it at Bill. The latter didn't saw that coming and was blasted away.

Now Starmie was freed from the vines, Misty had the arrogant smirk back on her face.

"Use Recover."

Bill got up, he seemed tired but also didn't want to give up.

"Get that plant away." I heard Wally say. "I'll take over."

Bill shook his head in disapproval but fell back to the ground a second later.

"Okay Wally, you are up. Use Gust!"

"You got it." Wally created a strong wind that took Starmie into the air.

"Now, Quick Attack." The Star Pokémon was hit multiple times by Wally.

As the Gust started to wear out, Starmie fell back into the water.

"Starmie, use Recover."

"Hell no." Wally responded.

"Create a Gust to get Starmie out of the water." I ordered.

Another strong wind blasted through the gym. This time it took a lot of water with it into the air, including Starmie.

The strong winds blasted the Star Pokémon into the wall.

It's core started to flicker.

"Crap, Starmie no!" But Misty realized it was over.

"This is the police, you are under arrest." I heard behind me. Two officer put down the two swimmers and put handcuffs on them.

Jenny and two others walked up towards Misty, with their guns point at her.

"Misty of Cerulean City, you are under arrest for running a gym under the reign of Lance."

Misty voluntarily put her hands forward.

"Don't think I'll be in jail for long." She smirked. "I'm Lance's favorite girl, I won't be in there for long."

She looked at me while she walked by. "Good luck being single all the time buddy." She said with a grin.

"Funny that Lance's favorite girl only got to be the second gym leader. You would think he'd keep his favorite close to him." I responded.

She growled angry and was taken away.

"Good job Lucas, that's two gym leaders down. Pewter City already has a new gym leader though." Jenny explained.

"Do you want me to beat that guy to?" I responded.

"No, and by the way she's a girl. Lance will keep replacing them, you just need to get further and further until you've reached the league. By the way, this is yours." She handed the Cascade Badge over to me. "Congrats."

"Thanks." I nodded and walked up to Bill.

"How are you doing?"

He spurted out some water. "I've had better days really." I started to smile.

"You know, I wouldn't mind tagging along with all you guys." He said with a grin. "But you can't capture me."

I nodded. "Sure."

"You see, you can only have 6 members on your team and I don't want to go to some digital storage center, nor do I want to replace anyone."

"You better not." Hope said. "Welcome to the team."


End file.
